


Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter Notes

by karoffelbrei89



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Harry Potter Meta, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, chapter notes, cross-posted from tumblr, hp meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:48:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 39,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21547861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karoffelbrei89/pseuds/karoffelbrei89
Summary: Part of my great Potter re-read, chapter notes to every book. Crossposting from tumblr (https://hufflly-puffs.tumblr.com).
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1: The Other Minister

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_ **

**Chapter 1: The Other Minister**

  * _“Half-Blood Prince”_ is unusual because it starts not with one but two chapters written from an outsider perspective. Rowling already did this in the first and fourth book, and continues it in the seventh as well. It is interesting how often those chapters are written from the perspectives of Muggles – book 1 starts with the Dursleys, the fourth book starts with Frank Bryce and book 6 now starts with the (unnamed) Prime Minister of the Muggles. And despite the fact that the readers themselves are in fact Muggles we read those chapters from the perspective of outsiders, because unlike them we are familiar with the Wizarding World. I always enjoyed those chapters, because they make the world this story takes place in a little bit broader and complex. Harry’s perspective is after all limited and I think it also gave Rowling a little exercise as a writer in doing those chapters.


  * _“‘But then,’ bleated the Prime Minister, ‘why hasn’t a former Prime Minister warned me –?’ At this, Fudge had actually laughed. ‘My dear Prime Minister, are you ever going to tell anybody?’”_ – I like to believe there is club full of former Prime Ministers, where they do nothing but talking about their respective experiences with the Ministry of Magic.


  * The Prime Minster tries to ignore his knowledge about the Wizarding World as best as he can, but boy I would have wanted to know everything there is if somebody told me magic is real.


  * _“‘Yes, alive,’ said Fudge. ‘That is – I don’t know – is a man alive if he can’t be killed? I don’t really understand it, and Dumbledore won’t explain properly – but anyway, he’s certainly got a body and is walking and talking and killing, so I suppose, for the purposes of our discussion, yes, he’s alive.’”_ – That is indeed a very important question – is someone alive if they can’t be killed? Can you only be truly alive if you can die? And therefore Voldemort, who so desperately clings to life, who tries to become immortal, misses the true meaning of what it means to be alive. But also Dumbledore did not explain to Fudge (and properly not to Scrimgeour as well) what he will teach Harry: the knowledge he has gained about Voldemort, why he could not die and how he can become mortal again. The only people as it seems who are aware of it are Dumbledore himself, Snape and Harry (and later on Ron and Hermione). Would it have been wiser to inform the Ministry? To let Aurors find and destroy the Horcruxes instead of 3 teenagers? Or the Order of the Phoenix? Dumbledore has always been a secret keeper and very selective about who had access to which information.


  * _“The Prime Minister did not know what to say to this, but a persistent habit of wishing to appear well-informed on any subject that came up made him cast around for any details he could remember of their previous conversations.”_ – We don’t learn a lot about the Prime Minister, but the fact that he likes to be well informed on any kind of subject that might be important speaks for him. Like that should be the standard for any politician, but unfortunately there are enough people in power who are not informed about the things they are supposed to make decisions about.


  * Both giants and Dementors joined their forces with Voldemort, which is exactly the thing Dumbledore warned Fudge would happen. That is one messed up “I told you so”.


  * I wonder why exactly the Death Eaters choose to kill Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance. Amelia Bones was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so she was probably responsible for the fate of a lot of the Death Eaters, at least those who were in Azkaban, so she was perhaps killed out of revenge. Emmeline Vance was a member of the Order of The Phoenix, so her murder might have happened to hurt Dumbledore personally? I don’t think she was a great danger to Voldemort and his followers, no more at least than any other member of the Order. Of course both women had been briefly mentioned in book 5 – Harry met Madam Bones during his hearing at the Ministry and Emmeline Vance was part of his Advance Guard from Privet Drive to Grimmauld Place. We (and Harry) know who they are, though we have no personal connection to them. But it further illustrates what Fudge is trying to tell the Prime Minister – that the Wizarding World is currently at war and good people are going to die.


  * _“‘That’s right. And they’re breeding. That’s what’s causing all this mist.’”_ – I really really don’t want to know how Dementors procreate.


  * _“‘I wish him luck,’ said Fudge, sounding bitter for the first time. ‘I’ve been writing to Dumbledore twice a day for the past fortnight, but he won’t budge. If he’d just been prepared to persuade the boy, I might still be … well, maybe Scrimgeour will have more success.’”_ – After you called Harry an attention seeking liar and lunatic for almost a year? Fat chance.


  * _“‘Er – yes,’ said the Prime Minister. ‘And if you don’t mind, I’d rather that door remained unlocked.’ ‘I’d rather not be interrupted,’ said Scrimgeour shortly, ‘or watched,’ he added, pointing his wand at the windows so that the curtains swept across them.”_ – Interesting that those are the first actions of Scrimgeour, things that did not occur to Fudge. And just like that you can already tell that Scrimgeour used to be an Auror.


  * _“‘But for heaven’s sake – you’re wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out – well – anything!’ Scrimgeour turned slowly on the spot and exchanged an incredulous look with Fudge, who really did manage a smile this time as he said kindly, ‘The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.’”_ – I always loved that line. Magic in the Potter world is not infinite. There are rules, there are things you can’t do, and there is a balance of power. The difference between the good guys and the bad guys, to put it simply, is their morality. There are things Dumbledore could do, because he is certainly powerful enough, but won’t do because he won’t cross certain lines. One could argue though that in the end Dumbledore’s plan is crossing such a line – it is built on Harry sacrificing himself. Dumbledore is willing to sacrifice one life so that thousand others can live. He did the very thing Voldemort thought he could never do – giving up Harry.




	2. Chapter 2: Spinner’s End

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 2: Spinner’s End**

  * There is some [excellent meta](https://hufflly-puffs.tumblr.com/post/184297111175/two-up-two-down) about the kind of house Snape lives in, which I encourage you all to read first. 


  * _“‘Just a fox,’ said a woman’s voice dismissively from under the hood. ‘I thought perhaps an Auror – Cissy, wait!’”_ – First of all that poor fox. But secondly Bellatrix just randomly casted a killing curse, just because she saw some movement. This could have been anyone, even a child. But that is what makes her so truly evil: her absolute dismissal for any kind of life she doesn’t think is worthy enough.


  * _“‘He lives here?’ asked Bella in a voice of contempt. ‘Here? In this Muggle dunghill? We must be the first of our kind ever to set foot –’”_ – I wonder if Bellatrix’s disgust is based on Snape living among Muggles at all, or especially because he lives at a place she describes as ‘dunghill’. Because as far as we know most wizards live among Muggles – Grimmauld place is placed between two Muggle houses after all. There are only very few places how are completely inhabited by wizards – Hogsmeade is said to be the only complete wizard village. Other places like Diagon Ally are hidden within Muggle cities. So I think it is rather the district that causes her outrage, though I really don’t know why it would matter where Snape lives.


  * I wonder why exactly Wormtail lives with Snape. It is possible that when the Ministry learned the truth about Sirius they also learned that Wormtail is still alive and responsible for the murders Sirius was convicted for. So Wormtail needs a hiding place, but why Snape? Is it possible Voldemort doesn’t trust Snape completely and sent Wormtail to him as a spy? Of course it is Wormtail who betrayed his friends and is therefore responsible for the murder of Lily, but I don’t think Voldemort sent Wormtail to Snape as a punishment. He had always underestimated the love Snape felt for Lily, because he never understood love himself.


  * Snape of course is the central figure of this book, though it is only revealed at the end. We know that he works as a double-agent, we know that both Voldemort and Dumbledore seem to trust him, whereas people like Bellatrix and Harry himself distrust him. The central question is where Snape’s true loyalty is placed and we won’t get an answer until the end of book 7.


  * Still, this is the first time we see Snape among other Death Eaters. We see how different Narcissa and Bellatrix see him: one puts her trust in him, so far that she puts her son’s life into his hands. The other completely distrusts him. All the questions Bellatrix asks Snape are, as Snape points out, questions Voldemort asked him as well, and questions the audience is curious about too. We know now why it is that Voldemort trusts Snape, but it is not until book 7 that we learn the reason Dumbledore put his trust in Snape. I might not be the biggest fan of Snape, but he is without a doubt one of the most ambiguous complex characters, whose true nature is hidden until the very end.


  * _“‘You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen?’”_ – I mean he did. Be proud of that.


  * _“‘He shares everything with me!’ said Bellatrix, firing up at once.”_ – _“Cursed Child”_ gives this line a completely new meaning *shudders*


  * _“The Dark Lord is satisfied with the information I have passed him on the Order. It led, as perhaps you have guessed, to the recent capture and murder of Emmeline Vance, […].”_ – I wonder how much truth there is in those words. What kind of information gave Snape to Voldemort? Was it on Dumbledore’s orders? Did they warn Emmeline Vance before? Or did they gamble with her life?


  * _“‘Have you discussed this matter with the Dark Lord?’ asked Snape. ‘He … lately, we … I am asking you, Snape!’”_ – Oh my god Severus, they are having a break.


  * _“I am pleased to say, however, that Dumbledore is growing old. The duel with the Dark Lord last month shook him. He has since sustained a serious injury because his reactions are slower than they once were.”_ – Does Snape refer to Dumbledore’s hand here? Does he starts spreading the information the injury was caused by Voldemort so that nobody would find out the real reason: that Dumbledore injured himself by destroying a Horcrux.


  * Narcissa is afraid that Draco might get killed in the process of killing Dumbledore (though we don’t know yet that this is his task) but I don’t think he was ever in danger? Dumbledore would have never killed Draco. The only risk was Voldemort himself and what he would do if Draco failed (which is exactly what happened, and yet Draco survived).


  * The Unbreakable Vow is the one thing Snape did not expect. He had to think quick before agreeing to it. There was no good reason why he should not agree to it. He had already suspected that it was Voldemort’s intention that he would be the one to kill Dumbledore in the end. And he knows that Dumbledore is about to die anyway. Still, Snape took a great risk here.




	3. Chapter 3: Will and Won’t

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 3: Will and Won’t**

  * _“The room was strewn with various possessions and a good smattering of rubbish. Owl feathers, apple cores and sweet wrappers littered the floor, a number of spellbooks lay higgledy-piggledy among the tangled robes on his bed, and a mess of newspapers sat in a puddle of light on his desk.”_ – The simply description of this room physically pains me. Perhaps it is Harry’s own version of rebellion against his overly orderly aunt or he is by now completely used to house elves cleaning up after him, I dunno, but please just clean up.


  * Of course the various newspapers are a clever way to give us a short overview about what happened in the Wizarding World since the public learned about the return of Voldemort: Harry’s status changed from an attention seeking troubled teenager to the saviour of the Wizarding World (‘The Chosen One’), Scrimgeour is the new Minister for Magic (though we already knew that), new security standards at Hogwarts, and security guidelines from the Ministry.


  * The fact that Harry did not pack, afraid that Dumbledore might not show up after all, shows how much his trust in Dumbledore has suffered during the last year. When Harry had needed him the most he could not rely on Dumbledore; their relationship is strained.


  * _“‘He’s been left a house?’ said Uncle Vernon greedily, his small eyes narrowing, but nobody answered him.”_ – Of course Vernon Dursley would never think to express condolences after learning that Harry’s godfather has died; the only kind of interest he has is in the heritage. Of course he might assume that now that Harry owns a house he can live there instead of Privet Drive. Sirius also left Harry all of his money; I always wondered if the Dursleys were curious about who afforded all of Harry’s school equipment. Perhaps they assumed the school itself paid for all that? If they knew that Harry already had inherited a small fortune from his parents Vernon probably would have asked Harry for some money, as a repayment for all the years he let him live in his house. Perhaps they just assumed that if Harry had some money he would have bought himself some decent clothes by now instead of still wearing Dudley’s old clothes.


  * Harry doesn’t want Grimmauld Place, for obvious reasons, though I always like the fan fiction where he makes his peace with the place and ends up living there.


  * So, when Harry orders Kreacher to work at Hogwarts, does that mean that for the time there Dumbledore is his master as well? Can you give house-elves away? Can you transfer ownership in case you don’t want to own a house-elf?


  * _“Incidentally, we have decided, in the interests of Buckbeak’s safety, to rechristen him Witherwings for the time being, though I doubt that the Ministry would ever guess he is the Hippogriff they once sentenced to death.”_ – I mean he only looks exactly like the Hippogriff they once sentenced to death but whatever, I’m sure nobody will notice.


  * _“‘You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you.’”_ – I think this is the first time they openly address that the Dursleys abused Harry; nobody ever has said it out loud before. But also the kind of abuse Dudley has experienced. Of course Dudley was never neglected, but the way his parents raised him damaged him in his own way. They spoiled him, justified all of his actions, making him the kind of man who would later think it is okay to take whatever he wants. We do see some change in his behaviour in book 7, and I think Rowling once explained that his experience with the Dementor caused that change. It is unfortunate we see so little of him and his relationship with Harry in this book though.


  * _“Uncle Vernon looked as though he had something stuck in his throat; Aunt Petunia, however, was oddly flushed.”_ – The ever so complicated relationship between Petunia and Harry. Petunia did love her sister, she was traumatized by her murder, and she took in her son knowing Lily gave her life for Harry and that it was the only way to protect Harry. Is Petunia ashamed because of that tiny fraction of love she felt for her sister? Or because she knows that Dumbledore is absolutely right in accusing her that she had abused Harry? Or maybe both?




	4. Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn**

  * _“He had never had a proper conversation with his headmaster outside Hogwarts before; there was usually a desk between them. The memory of their last face-to-face encounter kept intruding, too, and it rather heightened Harry’s sense of embarrassment; he had shouted a lot on that occasion, not to mention doing his best to smash several of Dumbledore’s most prized possessions.”_ – I think for that very reason it is hard to think of Dumbledore as a father-figure for Harry. Dumbledore always kept some distance, always made sure they would remain on student-teacher-level. He even explained to Harry why he thought it was important to keep that distance, so that he could remain objective and not get emotionally invested in Harry. Of course he failed and they will get closer in this book, though Dumbledore will function as a mentor rather than a parent. Perhaps Dumbledore always suspected the kind of role Harry had to play (given that he knew about the prophecy), always knew that he had to prepare Harry for the war that was to come one day, and by know we can be sure he already suspects that Harry himself is a Horcrux, and what that means for him. We can’t deny that Dumbledore is manipulative, but I think it would be a disservice to his character to accuse him that he does not care about Harry.


  * _“‘You have not, of course, passed your Apparition test?’ he said.”_ – Why would Dumbledore even ask this question? He already knows the answer. It feels like a rather inelegant way to inform us that you have to be 17 to pass your apparition test, even though we learn about that once the students start taking apparition classes.


  * _“My left, if you don’t mind – as you have noticed, my wand arm is a little fragile at the moment.”_ – The wand of course is the most important weapon for every wizard and witch, but it also requires a healthy hand to operate it. There are probably not many ways you can severely injure a hand in the Wizarding World, in the way Dumbledore did, without any chance for a cure, but if you do it will have consequences for the kind of magic you are able to perform (though Dumbledore obviously is very capable to perform wandless magic).


  * _“He shrugged and spread his hands wide, as though to say that age had its compensations, and Harry noticed a ring on his uninjured hand that he had never seen Dumbledore wear before: it was large, rather clumsily made of what looked like gold, and was set with a heavy black stone that had cracked down the middle. Slughorn’s eyes lingered for a moment on the ring, too, and Harry saw a tiny frown momentarily crease his wide forehead.”_ – Obviously Slughorn knows that this ring used to belong to Tom Riddle, who was highly interested in Horcruxes. All those years Slughorn might have been one of the very few who knew about Voldemort’s secret, how he had become ‘immortal’, but never shared this kind of information out of shame because he had been the one giving Riddle access to that information. By showing Slughorn the ring Dumbledore lets him know he knows about the secret as well, and given Dumbledore’s injured hand and the broken stone, Slughorn perhaps comes to the conclusion that the ring was a Horcrux and that Dumbledore has started to destroy them.


  * Perhaps Dumbledore is right and the Death Eaters are after Slughorn because they want to use his talents for their own causes. But it is also possible that Voldemort ordered them to kill Slughorn because as far as he knows he is the only one who knows about his secret. Then again, they had plenty of chance to do so in the seventh year, but never did.


  * I think Slughorn as a character is a perfect example for a Slytherin: he is not a bad or evil person. But he does whatever suits him best, whatever serves his own interests. He is afraid that teaching at Hogwarts will make him even more of a target for the Death Eaters, as it associates him with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. The reason why he eventually joins Hogwarts is again because he realizes that the Death Eaters already know he is not on their side (seeing that he is on the run) and that Hogwarts is perhaps the safest place you can be right now. Harry is still grieving Sirius, who gave his life in order to do what he thought was right. So naturally he can’t sympathize with someone like Slughorn who doesn’t want to take a side in order to survive.


  * But also Slughorn is somehow the anti-Hufflepuff. I already wrote about my dislike about the housing system, how students are picked for certain abilities, except for Hufflepuff, who teaches everyone (which falsely left to the assumption that Hufflepuff is the house for ‘losers’; if you are not good enough for the other houses you end up here). Slughorn openly admits that he knows he should not have favourites as a teacher, but the whole concept of the Slug-Club operates on his favouritism. Instead of giving everyone the same chances he only promotes those he thinks are worthy of his time, and obviously to benefit from their success in the long run.


  * _“His eyes burned suddenly and he blinked. He felt stupid for admitting it, but the fact that he had had someone outside Hogwarts who cared what happened to him, almost like a parent, had been one of the best things about discovering his godfather … and now the post owls would never bring him that comfort again …”_ – I wish Harry would stop thinking that feeling a natural very human emotion is somehow ‘stupid’. He has a very unhealthy reaction to crying or what he considers to be weak, taking discomfort in spotting this reaction within himself or others (see the whole Cho Chang fiasco).


  * Of course Dumbledore is right when he tells Harry he needs his friends, and that it is healthier to share the burden of the prophecy with them. But furthermore I also think that Dumbledore knows Harry can’t take the burden of completing the task of destroying the Horcruxes and ultimately killing Voldemort alone. Rather three frightening teenagers than one.




	5. Chapter 5: An Excess of Phlegm

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 5: An Excess of Phlegm**

  * And of course Hermione is at the Burrow as well, limiting the time she sees her parents to a week per year or something. Unlike the Dursleys we are actually meant to believe Hermione likes her parents, though she hardly ever talks about them. Perhaps she thinks it is safer for her and her parents if they are separated, though I wonder how much she has told her parents about the war that is going on in the Wizarding World and that one of her best friends is right in the center of it.


  * _“‘Of course he can be charming when he wants to be, but Arthur’s never liked him much. The Ministry’s littered with Slughorn’s old favourites, he was always good at giving leg-ups, but he never had much time for Arthur – didn’t seem to think he was enough of a high-flier. Well, that just shows you, even Slughorn makes mistakes. I don’t know whether Ron’s told you in any of his letters – it’s only just happened – but Arthur’s been promoted!’”_ – All of the Weasleys have earned their success by hard work – they neither have money or big influence and connections, and yet they all made something out of themselves, giving Molly the well-deserved right to feel smug about it.


  * _“‘What do you like me to call you when we’re alone together?’”_ – You could not have chosen a less embarrassing question, Arthur?


  * So, Hermione is very keen to discuss feelings with Harry, because obviously keeping everything to himself is not very healthy, but neither is forcing someone to talk about something they are not ready for. I get that Hermione wants to do what she thinks is right and the best for Harry, but those things are complicated.


  * I am not a huge fan of pitting women against women, in this case Hermione, Ginny and Molly’s openly dislike for Fleur, which is also the very old trope of disliking a woman because she is beautiful, and therefore assuming she is dumb. Obviously Fleur has her flaws but to me it doesn’t seem like the other women even try to give her a fair chance.


  * It is interesting how the fact that Molly invites Tonks over for dinner and that Tonks seems miserable is misinterpreted by everyone. Ginny thinks Tonks gets invited so that Bill falls for her instead of Fleur, and Hermione thinks Tonks is down because she blames herself for Sirius’s death. Obviously they are all wrong, but still it is fascinating with what kind of interpretation they come up, given the information they have.


  * _“‘Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right,’ said Hermione.”_ – Well, he is not wrong, that Dumbledore.


  * _“Harry did not really listen. A warmth was spreading through him that had nothing to do with the sunlight; a tight obstruction in his chest seemed to be dissolving. He knew that Ron and Hermione were more shocked than they were letting on, but the mere fact that they were still there on either side of him, speaking bracing words of comfort, not shrinking from him as though he were contaminated or dangerous, was worth more than he could ever tell them.”_ – Did I ever mention how much I love their friendship?


  * Both Harry and Ron have each 7 O.W.L.’s (both failed Divination and History of Magic), with the only seemingly exception that Harry has got an ‘Oustanding’ in DADA, which is interestingly the only subject where Hermione hasn’t got an ‘Oustanding’. I wonder why though. It can’t be in the theoretical part, and Hermione trained every kind of protective spell in Dumbledore’s Army for the better part of the school year. Harry got some bonus points for producing a Patronus, but this is highly advanced magic, so nobody would have expected a fifth year to perform this spell anyway. Either way, Harry is not as gifted as Dumbledore or Voldemort or even his parents – he is good, but not brilliant, with one subject in particular that he is very talented at. I always liked that about him, that he was not outstanding, not the most gifted wizard, but still succeeded.




	6. Chapter 6: Draco’s Detour

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 6: Draco’s Detour**

  * We learn that both Ollivander and Florean Forstecue are missing. We learn in book 7 why Voldemort had an interest in Ollivander, though we never find out what happened to Florean. The only things we know about him are that he sells ice cream and had a profound knowledge of History of Magic. Though this is never included in the book his knowledge is the reason why the Death Eaters took interest in him, and he was meant to give Harry clues on his Horcrux hunt in book 7, but Rowling cut his scenes, according to Pottermore.


  * _“Bill, who would be staying at home with Fleur (much to Hermione and Ginny’s pleasure), passed a full money bag across the table to Harry. ‘Where’s mine?’ demanded Ron at once, his eyes wide.”_ – I wonder what those two did all day long with an entire house to themselves? *cough*


  * Harry’s trip to Diagon Ally mirrors his previous trips there: he is accompanied by Hagrid and meets Draco at Madame Malkins as in the first book, and makes a trip to Borgin & Burkes as in the second book.


  * _“You know,’ said Hermione, looking up at Harry, ‘that really is extraordinary magic!’ ‘For that, Hermione,’ said a voice behind them, ‘you can have one for free.’”-_ Fred and George are in fact quite talented. In the previous chapter Mrs Weasley mentioned that the two of them together didn’t get as much O.W.L.’s as Ron alone, but as they are obviously quite intelligent they were either incredible lazy or felt rather unchallenged at school.


  * Fred and George develop a “Defence against the Dark Arts “-line, after they realized there is a market for it. Later though we learn that Draco used their Instant Darkness Powder for his own use, showing that even if something is meant to protect you it can be misused in the wrong hands.


  * _“Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermione and Ginny both hung back, looking wary.”_ – Throughout the books there is a very negative view of what you can call the stereotypical teenage girl: those who giggle and like everything that is pink and glitters. Both Hermione and Ginny are very much not those girls; they are both a bit tomboyish. Still, there is absolutely nothing wrong with those giggling girls and I wish media would stop making fun of them.


  * Casual sexism: George saying the love potions work depending on the attractiveness of the girl using them and moments later he and his brother start questioning Ginny about her love life, telling her she is going through her boyfriends too fast, which is, you know, a) none of their business and b) slut shaming. Life is hard when you have not one, but six older brothers.


  * _“‘The thing is, that – er – boy who was in here just now, Draco Malfoy, well, he’s a friend of mine, and I want to get him a birthday present, but if he’s already reserved anything I obviously don’t want to get him the same thing, so … um …’ It was a pretty lame story in Harry’s opinion, and apparently Borgin thought so too.”_ \- Confirmed: Hermione is the worst liar/actress.




	7. Chapter 7: The Slug Club

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 7: The Slug Club**

  * _“Harry spent a lot of the last week of the holidays pondering the meaning of Malfoy’s behaviour in Knockturn Alley. What disturbed him most was the satisfied look on Malfoy’s face as he had left the shop. Nothing that made Malfoy look that happy could be good news. To his slight annoyance, however, neither Ron nor Hermione seemed quite as curious about Malfoy’s activities as he was; or at least, they seemed to get bored of discussing it after a few days.”_ – And thus started Harry’s obsession with Draco Malfoy. And thus started me shipping Harry and Draco. Like obviously this pairing existed well before book 6, but up until then I never found Draco to be an interesting character and I also didn’t think there was a lot of shipping material in the first place. But here we have Harry stalking Draco for almost a year, and I mean the fan fiction almost starts writing itself. And furthermore Draco becomes a much more complex and interesting character. His final dialogue with Dumbledore is the reason I will always have a soft spot for him.


  * Nevertheless while reading this book for the first time I was pretty much with Ron and Hermione here, entirely unconvinced that Draco could be a Death Eater, for the very same reasoning they had: he is only sixteen. Then again I think Regulus Black was only 16 as well. And while it seems okay that Harry and his friends fought off Death Eaters by the age of 15 and he is now with 16 taking private lessons with Dumbledore, whose purpose is to prepare him for war, nobody believes Voldemort could recruit someone as young as Harry. They are in the middle of a war and we see these characters involved in it that we still consider to be children, but that is the point: they are no longer children. They lost their innocence.


  * I wrote a lot about Harry’s behaviour in book 5, that while his anger was justified it was not okay to let said anger out on his friends, and that a lot of times he acted like an ass, but also how these scenes work in contrast to the later books. A lot of people act like idiots when they are 15. In book 5 Harry had to share a compartment with Luna, Neville and Ginny, and when Cho greeted him he had wished to be surrounded by cooler people. This year as well he shares a compartment with Neville and Luna. Ginny is not around (to Harry’s annoyance) because she has her own friends, so we can assume she found those friends in the last year, when she had opened up more, and Harry noticed her as a person for the first time. Romilda Vane offers Harry to sit with her and her friends, but Harry coldly replies that Luna and Neville are his friends, thank you very much. The entire scene would not have such a significance if it didn’t show us the change Harry went through, how he became more mature, how he realized who his real friends are and that there are more important things than popularity.


  * _“Had Voldemort chosen Neville, it would be Neville sitting opposite Harry bearing the lightning-shaped scar and the weight of the prophecy … or would it? Would Neville’s mother have died to save him, as Lily had died for Harry? Surely she would … but what if she had been unable to stand between her son and Voldemort? Would there, then, have been no ‘Chosen One’ at all? An empty seat where Neville now sat and a scarless Harry who would have been kissed goodbye by his own mother, not Ron’s?”_ – That is not how prophecies work though, Harry. At least not in the Wizarding World. There would have always been a Chosen One, someone who would have been marked as equal by Voldemort, for the very same reason: a mother who dies for her child and gives it therefore protection and the means to defeat Voldemort. And perhaps Neville would have not defeated Voldemort, because the prophecy only says that only one of them can live, but never says who. We don’t know. Still, there would have always been a Chosen One. You can’t prevent a prophecy to come true; Voldemort tried and set it in motion instead.


  * _“Every now and then students would hurtle out of their compartments to get a better look at him. The exception was Cho Chang, who darted into her compartment when she saw Harry coming. As Harry passed the window he saw her deep in determined conversation with her friend Marietta, who was wearing a very thick layer of makeup that did not entirely obscure the odd formation of pimples still etched across her face. Smirking slightly, Harry pushed on.”_ – I get it, Marietta put everyone in deep trouble, but still isn’t it time she got rid of those pimples? She can’t wear them forever. And I know Hermione is really good, but still someone at Hogwarts or St. Mungo’s should be qualified enough to make those pimples vanish.


  * The book makes it look like neither Harry or Neville know who Cormac McLaggen is, despite the fact that he is in the same house as them. We know Harry is Captain Oblivious but Neville as well?


  * _“It was as Harry had suspected. Everyone here seemed to have been invited because they were connected to somebody well-known or influential – everyone except Ginny.”_ – Why though? Why would the Weasley family not be considered to be well-known? Arthur works at the Ministry at a high position, Percy works there as well and was junior assistant to the former Minister of Magic. Bill works at Gringotts, Charlie with dragons, the twins have a successful business. Also the Weasleys are one of the oldest pureblood-families and associated with Harry as well. Everyone in the Wizarding World seems to know them, so I think it would be odd that the only reason Ginny got invited for is her bat-bogey-hex.


  * _“‘A lot of boys like her,’ said Pansy, watching Malfoy out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. ‘Even you think she’s good-looking, don’t you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!’”_ – I think this is the first time Ginny is described as handsome, and it happens in the same book where Harry falls for her. She is also described to be popular among the boys of Hogwarts, which oddly enough kind of makes her price for Harry to win, as Ginny clearly could date anyone she wants. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ginny as a character and the development of her relationship with Harry. It is just annoying that the book has to mention how beautiful she is (from an objective point of view, not just Harry’s) and that a lot of boys are interested in her, even though it is his jealousy that makes Harry realizes he has a thing for Ginny.


  * Both Draco and Theodore Nott are not invited into the Slug Club, despite their fathers being close to Slughorn at their times in Hogwarts, because they are both revealed as Death Eaters. I wonder though how the Slug Club would have looked like in the previous year. Would Harry have gotten an invitation by Slughorn despite his reputation at the time? (He was still famous after all) It seems that Draco and Nott might have gotten one. Slughorn does judge people by their family. We know of course that Draco is a bully and by now a Death Eater, but Slughorn doesn’t. He doesn’t want to be associated with the Malfoy and Nott family, despite the fact that Draco and Theodore Nott are their own persons.




	8. Chapter 8: Snape Victorious

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 8: Snape Victorious**

  * _“Harry looked sideways at Tonks under his Cloak. Last year she had been inquisitive (to the point of being a little annoying at times), she had laughed easily, she had made jokes. Now she seemed older and much more serious and purposeful. Was this all the effect of what had happened at the Ministry? He reflected uncomfortably that Hermione would have suggested he say something consoling about Sirius to her, that it hadn’t been her fault at all, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was far from blaming her for Sirius’s death; it was no more her fault than anyone else’s (and much less than his), but he did not like talking about Sirius if he could avoid it. And so they tramped on through the cold night in silence, Tonks’s long cloak whispering on the ground behind them.”_ – I think it is interesting that Tonk’s heartbreak is misinterpreted as grief. Obviously you can’t compare these two feelings, but oddly enough I think it gives Tonk’s feelings some deeper meaning, that her unrequited love feels almost like losing someone. But also we have here what I call the blame game. Harry doesn’t blame Tonks for Sirius’s death, but at the same time he can’t forgive himself for what happened, still thinking he is somewhat responsible for his godfather’s death. Later though we see that he has projected most of his anger on Snape, because it is easier to deal with his loss that way, focusing on the person he has already hated before.


  * _“‘Alohomora!’ he said confidently, pointing his wand at the padlock, but nothing happened.”_ – I mean obviously the gates would not open as easily like that, then again that is the exact same spell Hermione used in their first year when they entered the forbidden corridor and almost got eaten by Fluffy, so who can blame Harry for thinking this is the standard Hogwarts security level?


  * We learn that Tonk’s Patronus has changed; Harry describes it as a four legged creature. It is possible it is a wolf or even a werewolf, illustrating Tonk’s heartbreak (though Harry could interpret it as a large dog and still think it has something to do with the loss of Sirius). Snape remarks that Tonk’s new Patronus looks weak, so he obviously knows about her feelings for Remus and mocks her for it, because, you know, he is an ass. Still, I think it is interesting that your emotional state can change the way your Patronus looks. We also never learn how to use them to communicate with others; we know they can deliver messages, but never learn the spell to do so.


  * _“As though he had read Harry’s mind, however, Snape said, ‘No Cloak. You can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, I’m sure.’”_ – Snape knows perfectly well that Harry hates all the attention he gets, which is why he forbids him to use his Invisibility cloak, despite claiming all the time that Harry loves to be famous.


  * _“‘You’re covered in blood!’ said Hermione. ‘Come here –’ She raised her wand, said, ‘Tergeo!’ and siphoned off the dried blood.”_ – Tonks healed your nose but could not get rid of the blood?


  * We learn that Slughorn is the new potions master and that Snape is the new DADA teacher, and that of course the job is jinxed. Obviously Dumbledore had his reasons to bring Slughorn back to Hogwarts, as he needed his Horcrux-memory. So perhaps giving Snape his dream job was just a means to an end. Perhaps Dumbledore trusted Snape by now enough to let him near the Dark Arts. Perhaps Dumbledore couldn’t care less with only one year left to live. Still, Dumbledore is aware that the job of the DADA teacher is cursed, so he does put Snape in danger (then again Snape is a double-spy, so a cursed job is the least of his problems).




	9. Chapter 9: The Half-Blood Prince

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 9: The Half-Blood Prince**

  * _“Hermione’s remonstration was drowned by a loud giggle; Lavender Brown had apparently found Ron’s remark highly amusing. She continued to laugh as she passed them, glancing back at Ron over her shoulder. Ron looked rather pleased with himself.”_ – Lavender has never shown any kind of interest to Ron before, I can’t even remember if they ever talked to each other, and it is the first school day and she is already flirting with him, so what changed? Is it because Ron was in the Ministry, fighting side by side with Harry? Because he is the best friend of the Chosen One? Whatever it is, I doubt Lavender’s interest in Ron is genuine.


  * _“‘That’s it, though, innit?’ said Ron, swallowing an entire fried egg whole. ‘We were the ones who made the most effort in classes because we like Hagrid. But he thinks we liked the stupid subject. D’you reckon anyone’s going to go on to N.E.W.T.?’ Neither Harry nor Hermione answered; there was no need. They knew perfectly well that nobody in their year would want to continue Care of Magical Creatures.”_ – I doubt that nobody continues the subject; some maybe have to because they were not good enough in other subjects to continue them on a N.E.W.T.-level. But even Harry, Ron and Hermione’s sympathy for Hagrid has their limits and they know perfectly well that he is not the best teacher. Perhaps it is a good thing in the end because the effort Harry, Ron and Hermione put in the subject gave Hagrid false security and now he tries to become a better teacher?


  * _“‘Humph,’ snorted Professor McGonagall. ‘It’s high time your grandmother learned to be proud of the grandson she’s got, rather than the one she thinks she ought to have – particularly after what happened at the Ministry.’ Neville turned very pink and blinked confusedly; Professor McGonagall had never paid him a compliment before.”_ – You can be a strict teacher and still kind, you know (looking at you Snape). And that is one of the many reasons why I love McGonagall; she values all her students and their strengths.


  * Obviously the teachers themselves decide with what mark you can continue their subject on a N.E.W.T.-level, but so far it seems like Snape is the only one who demands an ‘Outstanding’. At least he did when he was still teaching potions, but for DADA “Exceeds Expectations” seems to be enough, as Ron can attend the course. Still, given how few students are qualified to study potions on a N.E.W.T.-level, it doesn’t reflect well on Snape. He isn’t a very good teacher, bullying students instead of encouraging them, so everyone who is not naturally gifted at the subject will fail.


  * It only occurred to me now how the different DADA teachers and their respective methods of teaching tell something about the state of the Wizarding World. While Quirell and Lockhart taught the subject it seemed ridiculous, and at the time the Wizarding World was not yet in danger. Lupin was their first real teacher, actually teaching them something. Harry was seemingly in danger, with Sirius on the run, and the Dementors surrounding Hogwarts. And by the end of the year Pettigrew escaped, marking the first step for Voldemort’s return. Moody aka Crouch jun. prepared them for a war only he knew was about to start, teaching them about the Unforgiveable Curses Harry had to witness later that year. Umbridge pretended there was no danger in the world because that was what the Ministry wanted everyone to believe. Harry taught the members of the DA in secret because he knew about the truth. Now the Wizarding World is at war and Snape (just like Moody, just like Harry) prepares his students for this war.


  * _“Yes, those who progress to using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power which some,’ his gaze lingered maliciously upon Harry once more, ‘lack.’”_ – And yet Harry is particular good at spells that need a strong will and mind power. He was able to produce a Patronus when he was 13, he was able to fight of the Imperius Curse when he was 14 etc. Neither of those things though require to shut off your emotions (on the contrary, to produce a Patronus you need to focus on your emotions), so of course Harry would fail at Occlumency. Plus Snape is a bad teacher.


  * _“‘There’s no need to call me “sir”, Professor.’”_ – BEST LINE EVER.


  * _“Harry, too, had recognised the slow-bubbling, mudlike substance in the second cauldron, but did not resent Hermione getting the credit for answering the question; she, after all, was the one who had succeeded in making it, back in their second year.”_ – Good to know that the potion Hermione made when she was 12 (!) was freaking N.E.W.T.-level.


  * _“‘And the steam rising in characteristic spirals,’ said Hermione enthusiastically, ‘and it’s supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and –’ But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence.”_ – So how exactly does Ron smell, Hermione? Like it is obvious that Hermione recognizes the smell as his smell, otherwise she would have finished her sentence, unlike Harry, who does not immediately associates the flowery smell from the potion with Ginny.


  * It is interesting that Harry recognizes Dumbledore’s handwriting, but not Snape’s, despite the fact that Snape had been his teacher for five years now. Also, as it seems, Snape taught his classes to brew their potions the way it was described in their text books, despite having figured out more efficient ways to do so. Of course why should we expect a teacher to share his knowledge with his students? Laughable. Still, it shows the deeper understanding Snape had for his subject. (I wonder if in later years there will be new version of this textbook, with Snape’s instructions instead?)


  * _“‘Hang on,’ said a voice close by Harry’s left ear and he caught a sudden waft of that flowery smell he had picked up in Slughorn’s dungeon. He looked round and saw that Ginny had joined them.”_ – How to figure out you have a crush on someone: the most powerful love potion smells like them. And still, as far as I remember, it takes some time for Harry to figure out his feelings for Ginny. *facepalm*


  * _“This Book is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince”_ – Given how many times Snape mocked Harry for him being (involuntary) famous I can’t get over the fact how extra it is he gave himself a title while he was at school.




	10. Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt**

  * _“Hermione, meanwhile, was resolutely ploughing on with what she called the ‘official’ instructions, but becoming increasingly bad-tempered as they yielded poorer results than the Prince’s.”_ – Apparently there is more than one way to brew a potion, so I guess Potions is a bit like baking? Where you can use various recipes to make the same cake? But you really need some experience to change a recipe (or even create a new one), and the same goes for Potions. You need a deeper understanding of the ingredients and how each of them works to make changes. And it is interesting that Hermione sticks to the so called ‘official’ instructions, treating Harry as if he would break the rules because he doesn’t, but also believing that there is only one ‘right’ way to do things. So Potions is also a bit like math, where there is usually also more than one way to get to the right result. (And yes, I stick with that, Potions is like baking and like math combined. Deal with it.)


  * _“Here and there were directions for what looked like spells that the Prince had made up himself.”_ – Obviously all the spells the students learn have been invented at some point, but it still seems odd to think about creating a new spell. Just as changing the instructions for potions, I feel like creating new spells demands a deeper understanding of how magic works. It isn’t just about saying the right words and waving your wand. And with everything else going on I think we sometimes overlook what an incredible gifted wizard Snape was (and look that says something coming from me). Perhaps that is why Voldemort favoured him, because he saw enough of himself in Snape: a halfblood, drawn to the Dark Arts, with an understanding of magic only few else have.


  * _“‘And so I did,’ said Dumbledore placidly. ‘I told you everything I know. From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork.”_ – Obviously Dumbledore doesn’t have all the facts and there are periods of Voldemort’s life where he can only guess what he did. But also, all of his information rely on the memories of others. As we later see with Slughorn one can manipulate their own memory. But I also wonder if people simply can remember things wrong? Or incomplete. At least for Muggles memories can be very subjective and never give you an objective view of what actually happened. Memories in the Wizarding World though seem to work different. Last year Harry saw Snape’s memory and was able to listen to the conversation his younger father had with his friends, despite Snape not being part of that conversation. He couldn’t have remembered it and yet Harry was able to listen to it.


  * The Gaunts speak Parseltongue among themselves, clearly as a way to avoid others to understand what they have to say. Harry of course understands them. Dumbledore however can’t. He probably has seen this memory before and yet he missed out some crucial information.


  * _“‘Are you pure-blood?’ he asked, suddenly aggressive. ‘That’s neither here nor there,’ said Ogden coldly, and Harry felt his respect for Ogden rise.”_ – The right answer to shitty questions is usually how you can tell if someone deserves your respect or not.


  * Marvolo Gaunt shows Bob Odgen the ring with the Stone of Resurrection (though it is obvious he doesn’t know what it is), saying it is a family heirloom, coming from the Peverell family. The other known family heirloom, as we later learn in book 7, is the Invisibility Cloak, passed down to Harry. Therefore through their connection of the Peverell family Harry and Voldemort are actually related. 


  * The entire conversation where Morfin reveals to his father that Merope has a crush on Tom Riddle is in Parseltongue, therefore something Dumbledore (unlike Harry) can’t understand, though Dumbledore obviously knows enough about Merope to fill in the blanks what that conversation was about.


  * _“‘And they ended up married?’ Harry said in disbelief, unable to imagine two people less likely to fall in love.”_ – Listen Harry, two people don’t necessarily have to be in love and married to have a child together.


  * It is interesting that while Merope was emotionally and physically abused by her father and brother her magic didn’t seem to work right, making her father accuse her to be a Squib. However when she was free of them she was able to brew a love potion, though I wonder if she ever had been to Hogwarts, or where she would have gotten the ingredients from.


  * _“‘The Imperius Curse?’ Harry suggested. ‘Or a love potion?’ ‘Very good. Personally, I am inclined to think that she used a love potion. I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her […].”_ – Dumbledore says that a love potion had seemed more romantic to Merope, though the effect was the same as if she would have used the Imperius Curse: Tom Riddle acted against his will. And while the Curse is illegal love potions are not, despite being basically the Wizarding equivalent of a rape drug. And that is how Voldemort was received, through rape, even though the book never goes as far as to actually use that word.


  * So much about book 6 is about love and the absence of love. On the one hand we have all those teenage romances, and in contrast to that we have Voldemort’s origin story, which starts with an abusive family and rape. There was no genuine love between Merope and Tom Riddle, and heartbroken Merope could not love her child but died instead. And this absence of love, so it seems, created a person that was unable to love anyone or anything. Love is always what set Harry and Voldemort apart, because it was his mother’s love that saved Harry. And it was his love for Lily that made Snape turn against Voldemort. And yet… I do love myself some villain backstory, but what we learn is that Voldemort has pretty much always been a monster. That there have never been any redeeming qualities about him. Which in the end always makes him a bit of a comic book villain and very one-dimensional. Harry, Snape and Voldemort all had pretty shitty childhoods and grew up to be three very different men, but whereas Snape and Harry are allowed to have both dark and light sides, Voldemort is not. He always remains an abstract monster.




	11. Chapter 11: Hermione’s Helping Hand

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 11: Hermione’s Helping Hand**

  * _“‘Oh, come on, Harry,’ said Hermione, suddenly impatient. ‘It’s not Quidditch that’s popular, it’s you! You’ve never been more interesting and, frankly, you’ve never been more fanciable.’ Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper. Hermione spared him one look of disdain before turning back to Harry.”_ – I just love this entire scene, where Hermione patiently explains Harry why he became so popular all of sudden, and Ron doesn’t even try to hide his jealousy. I regularly make my friends compliments, simply because I think it is a nice gesture (and they are awesome people), so I never saw this scene from a shipping point of view. I don’t think Hermione could have told Harry so casually why he is, in her words, ‘fanciable’ if she was actually into him. And Ron’s desperate attempt to prove to Hermione that he is fanciable as well is both cringy and cute.


  * _“‘I’ll give Slughorn back the new one. He can’t complain, it cost nine Galleons.’”_ – Nine Galleons for one schoolbook? Seriously? According to Rowling 1 Galleon is roughly about 5 pounds, so this book would cost 45 pounds! I mean Harry’s wand had costed only 7 Galleons. Also, Ron gets his own copy of “Advanced Potion-Making” as well, and it seems to be a new copy, not a second hand book. He also got a new robe at Madame Malkin before the school year started, so it is fair to assume that Mr. Weasley had a nice pay rise with his new job. (This and the fact that the Weasley have now only two children left who depend on them financially)


  * Why are there first years at the Quidditch tryouts? I thought first years were not allowed to play Quidditch for their houses, with Harry being an exception. Did they change that rule?


  * I’m still amazed that Harry had no idea who Cormag McLaggen was up until this year, despite the two of them being in the same house for 5 years now. Like if you are not in Harry’s year, not part of the Quidditch team or friends with one of the Weasleys Harry will have no idea who you are.


  * _“‘If you ask me,’ said Harry quietly, ‘McLaggen looks like he was Confunded. And he was standing right in front of where you were sitting.’ Hermione blushed. ‘Oh, all right then, I did it,’ she whispered. ‘But you should have heard the way he was talking about Ron and Ginny! Anyway, he’s got a nasty temper, you saw how he reacted when he didn’t get in – you wouldn’t have wanted someone like that on the team.’”_ – I like that Hermione’s excuse is McLaggen’s temper, though it is obvious that she wanted to avoid a situation where Harry had to choose somebody else as a keeper. And ironically I think the fact that McLaggen had messed up his final penalty is what gave Ron some extra confidence.




	12. Chapter 12: Silver and Opals

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 12: Silver and Opals**

  * _“Where was Dumbledore, and what was he doing? Harry caught sight of the Headmaster only twice over the next few weeks. He rarely appeared at meals any more, and Harry was sure Hermione was right in thinking that he was leaving the school for days at a time. Had Dumbledore forgotten the lessons he was supposed to be giving Harry? Dumbledore had said that the lessons were leading to something to do with the prophecy; Harry had felt bolstered, comforted, and now he felt slightly abandoned.”_ – Does that mean that Dumbledore is still trying to get new memories about Voldemort even now? Is the long period between the lessons to be explained by Dumbledore trying to get new information? Or did he had all the memories (with the exception of Slughorn’s) together before the school year started? Perhaps Dumbledore’s absence can simply explained with him doing business for the Order. Doing whatever he can to stop Voldemort. And of course, as we later learn, the curse Dumbledore felt victim to, gave him roughly a year left to live, so perhaps he also uses the time for some unfinished business or to say goodbye to friends.


  * _“He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behaviour, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way.”-_ I love that Hermione, in the boy’s eyes, has become their weird friend, who they love anyway.


  * _“On the other hand, the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far.”_ – THE IRONY. (J.K. was cackling writing this one)


  * _“He groped for the potion book and riffled through it in a panic, trying to find the right page; at last he located it and deciphered one cramped word underneath the spell: praying that this was the counter-jinx, Harry thought Liberacorpus! with all his might.”_ – Shouldn’t have a simply “Finite Incantatem” worked as well? Does every jinx has a specific counter-jinx?


  * _“‘So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?’ ‘Why does it matter if it’s handwritten?’ said Harry, preferring not to answer the rest of the question. ‘Because it’s probably not Ministry of Magic-approved,’ said Hermione. ‘And also,’ she added, as Harry and Ron rolled their eyes, ‘because I’m starting to think this Prince character was a bit dodgy.’”_ – Obviously Hermione is right here for telling Harry off, because anything could have happened (though of course if you know a bit of Latin you can usually tell what effect a spell will have). I also think it is interesting that spells need to be Ministry-approved. Is it therefore illegal to use a self-invented spell? Can you get a patent on a new spell you created? And of course Hermione turns out to be right in her thinking the Prince is a bit dodgy, especially after Harry had used ‘Sectumsempra’, which backfired horribly. Hermione believes the Prince is not trustworthy and Harry believes Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater, both are being laughed at for their beliefs, both turn out to be right after all.


  * Hermione mentions that the spell Harry used on Ron, that made him fly up in the air, was also used by the Death Eaters during the Quidditch World Cup, to frighten Muggles. Ron says that it is different, that Harry only used the spell as a laugh, whereas the Death Eaters were abusing it. But that’s it: most spells are not evil or bad, it always depends how you use them, and with what intention. Even the most simple spell can be used to cause harm in the wrong hands.


  * _“Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.”_ – Not the kind of wall-slamming I want to see *coughs*.


  * _“‘It wasn’t a very slick attack, really, when you stop and think about it,’ said Ron, casually turfing a first-year out of one of the good armchairs by the fire, so that he could sit down. ‘The curse didn’t even make it into the castle. Not what you’d call foolproof.’”_ – I think in their final conversation this is something Dumbledore mentioned as well – that the attacks on him weren’t very well-thought. Dumbledore however doesn’t think this is a sign of lack of intelligence on Draco’s part but rather that Draco never really wanted his plan to succeed in the first place, that maybe he had even hoped to be caught.




	13. Chapter 13: The Secret Riddle

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 13: The Secret Riddle**

  * Something that I noticed during this chapter is that Dumbledore, after he had shown Harry another memory, interprets the scene for him. Therefore Rowling interprets the scene through the character of Dumbledore for her audience. This isn’t the first time. Especially Hermione (but also Dumbledore) functions often as an Exposition character, someone who gives Harry vital information about the Wizarding World, as well as interpreting certain situations for Harry, for example Cho’s emotional state on their horrible first date. In this case Dumbledore (therefore Rowling) wanted to make sure Harry (therefore the audience) pays attention to the right details when it comes to Voldemort. I’m usually not a huge fan of a writer trying to explain their story to me, but in this case it makes sense within the story.


  * _“She appears to have brushed the necklace with the smallest possible amount of skin: there was a tiny hole in her glove. Had she put it on, had she even held it in her ungloved hand, she would have died, perhaps instantly.”_ – I wonder what kind of curse Katie almost fell victim to. Touching the necklace would have killed her immediately, but in her case even the smallest amount of skin caused severe damage. How exactly would the curse have killed her? What is it that happened to her?


  * _“‘He only gave her ten Galleons?’ said Harry indignantly.”_ – Well, she could have bought a Hogwarts textbook from it. And maybe like one butterbeer.


  * _“‘Ah,’ said Dumbledore, ‘perhaps she could. But it is my belief – I am guessing again, but I am sure I am right – that when her husband abandoned her, Merope stopped using magic. I do not think that she wanted to be a witch any longer. Of course, it is also possible that her unrequited love and the attendant despair sapped her of her powers; […].’”_ – I think for Merope magic has never been a good thing. Her father and her brother used magic against her, to oppress her, to the point where she was emotionally unstable enough not to perform any magic herself. She then eventually used magic to get Tom Riddle to fall in love with her, but the moment she stopped he left her, perhaps making her believe it was her being a witch that made him go. Being a witch has never been a positive experience for her, so the great irony is that the descendant of Salazar Slytherin, the mother of Lord Voldemort, no longer wanted to be a witch.


  * _“‘Could you possibly be feeling sorry for Lord Voldemort?’ ‘No,’ said Harry quickly, ‘but she had a choice, didn’t she, not like my mother –’ ‘Your mother had a choice, too,’ said Dumbledore gently. ‘Yes, Merope Riddle chose death in spite of a son who needed her, but do not judge her too harshly, Harry.’”_ – Lily died for her son, died to protect him, chose death to save him. Merope chose death despite her son needing her; it would have been brave for her to choose life instead. Both Harry and Voldemort grew up as orphans, but the reasons why they had no parents taking care for them couldn’t have been more different. The one whose parents died for love became a good man, the one whose parents abandoned him became a monster.


  * _“‘You mean he’s won a scholarship? How can he have done? He’s never been entered for one.’ ‘Well, his name has been down for our school since birth –’ ‘Who registered him? His parents?’ There was no doubt that Mrs Cole was an inconveniently sharp woman.”_ – Look, Mrs Cole might think that Tom is a bit strange and she is relieved that he will leave her orphanage, but still when a complete stranger appears to take away one of her children she asks the right questions.


  * _“‘Here,’ said Dumbledore, waving his wand once as he passed her the piece of paper, ‘I think this will make everything clear.’ Mrs Cole’s eyes slid out of focus and back again as she gazed intently at the blank paper for a moment. ‘That seems perfectly in order,’ she said placidly, handing it back.”_ – Obviously this is the same magic paper the Doctor uses. #confirmed


  * _“‘Well, we named him just as she’d said, it seemed so important to the poor girl, but no Tom nor Marvolo nor any kind of Riddle ever came looking for him, nor any family at all, so he stayed in the orphanage and he’s been here ever since.’”_ – We later find out that little Tom Riddle isn’t very fond of his name, and that is even before he found out that his father was a Muggle. The name ‘Tom’ is too common, not special, not the way Tom sees himself (he doesn’t even like that he shares his names with others). But it is so interesting that this is the name Merope chose for her son – the name of his Muggle dad. Merope, who no longer used magic, who no longer wanted to be a witch, gave her son a name that would leave no trace of his heritage. The only indicator to his Wizard ancestors is his middle name, Marvolo, so despite his abuse it is possible Merope still loved her father. Perhaps she had also given her son a Muggle name so that neither her father or her brother would find her son.


  * It is clear from what Mrs Cole tells Dumbledore about Tom that he is a psychopath. He doesn’t have any friends, he lies, he manipulates, he scares the other children. And there isn’t a defining incident that changed his personality, he has always been like this. Rowling avoids the stereotype to portray the orphanage as a horrible place – Harry mentions that the children look well-cared. From what we learn about Mrs Cole she has a genuine interest in the well-being of her children (and a little drinking problem). Her interest in getting rid of Riddle is more for the sake of the other children, who are afraid of him. There is no indication that Mrs Cole or anyone else at the orphanage has acted abusive, so in many ways Tom had a better childhood than Harry or Snape. The fact that Tom was a product of rape, that both his parents abandoned him, can be seen as a metaphor, that the loveless circumstances of his birth created a man who was never able to understand love himself. But little Tom Riddle doesn’t know this yet. It is no excuse for the frightening behaviour he already shows. And perhaps that is why he could never redeem himself in the end, because he has always been a monster.


  * _“‘I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to.’” –_ You remember the kind of accidental magic Harry produced as a child? Like making his hair grow back or magically escaping his bullies at school? None of those have the quality of “I can make them hurt if I want to”. Like if a child ever says something like that to you, congratulation, you found yourself in a horror movie. And he shows not a single bit of remorse about it. He is just fascinated by the kind of power he has over other people.


  * _“‘I knew I was different,’ he whispered to his own quivering fingers. ‘I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something.’”_ – And as Harry later remarks Tom’s reaction is quite different to his. He immediately believed Dumbledore when he learned that he was a wizard, because he already thought of himself to be special. To be different. Extraordinary. And even now, when he doesn’t know about Purebloods and the like, little Tom already has this mind-set that he is better, above all others, Muggles and Wizards alike.


  * _“‘I haven’t got any money.’ ‘That is easily remedied,’ said Dumbledore, drawing a leather money-pouch from his pocket. ‘There is a fund at Hogwarts for those who require assistance to buy books and robes.”_ – How come the Weasleys never got any money from that fund? At least it is never mentioned. Does this fund only work for special cases like Riddle, who has no money of his own? Does it also apply to families with a low-income? Did the Weasleys simply refuse, too proud to take any money? Or does this fund no longer exist? (Though I doubt that Dumbledore as a headmaster would get rid of it)


  * _“‘Was my father a wizard? He was called Tom Riddle too, they’ve told me.’ ‘I’m afraid I don’t know,’ said Dumbledore, his voice gentle. ‘My mother can’t have been magic, or she wouldn’t have died,’ said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore. ‘It must’ve been him.”_ – Already Tom associates Muggles with weakness and magic with power. He doesn’t believe his mother could have been a witch or else she wouldn’t have died. At some point he found out the truth however – that his father was a Muggle, that his mother was a witch, descendant from Slytherin, who still died after all, refusing to use magic to save her own life. Maybe that is where Voldemort’s fascination with immortality comes from – the belief that magic equals power, that used in the right way you can even avoid death, failing to see, as Dumbledore told him, that there are worse things than death.


  * _“‘Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time?’ said Dumbledore. ‘No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to be what he is. However, I was certainly intrigued by him. I returned to Hogwarts intending to keep an eye upon him, something I should have done in any case, given that he was alone and friendless, but which, already, I felt I ought to do for others’ sake as much as his.”_ – Even then Dumbledore saw that Tom was a psychopath, someone who could appear charming on the surface, but with no empathy for others, who already used magic as a weapon. I think that over the years Riddle perfected his mask of the incredible gifted young charming man, to avoid to draw any attention to his true nature. Dumbledore had seen glimpses of that true nature upon their first meeting, which is why he never trusted Tom completely.


  * _“You will hear many of his Death Eaters claiming that they are in his confidence, that they alone are close to him, even understand him. They are deluded. Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one.”_ – This perfectly corresponds with the second chapter, with Bellatrix’s firm belief that she is the closet to the Dark Lord and her anger when she learned that Voldemort confided in Snape as well. It is a part of Voldemort’s manipulative scheme, to let his followers believe they alone are his secret keepers, so therefore none of them will bond too much with the others. They all follow him, but as a group there are not united. Every single one of them is only interested what is best for them, not the collective.


  * _“‘And lastly – I hope you are not too sleepy to pay attention to this, Harry – the young Tom Riddle liked to collect trophies. You saw the box of stolen articles he had hidden in his room. These were taken from victims of his bullying behaviour, souvenirs, if you will, of particularly unpleasant bits of magic. Bear in mind this magpie-like tendency, for this, particularly, will be important later.”_ – Obviously this will later make sense in reference to the Horcruxes, and the value Voldemort puts in certain artefacts, especially those that contain a certain history. But these little souvenirs he has here remind me of a psychopath who keeps souvenirs from his murders. And that is what his first Horcrux is after all – the diary only has personal value, as it is an evidence for the first murder Voldemort ever committed.




	14. Chapter 14: Felix Felicis

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 14: Felix Felicis**

  * Teenagers! Hormones! Heartbreak! Welcome to a new episode of Riverdale… I mean a new chapter of “Half Blood Prince”. And to be clear here: I do love all those teenage romances. This is exactly my jam.


  * _“It was not as though he was really surprised, thought Harry, as he wrestled with a thorny vine intent upon throttling him; he had had an inkling that this might happen sooner or later. But he was not sure how he felt about it … he and Cho were now too embarrassed to look at each other, let alone talk to each other; what if Ron and Hermione started going out together, then split up? Could their friendship survive it? Harry remembered the few weeks when they had not been talking to each other in the third year; he had not enjoyed trying to bridge the distance between them. And then, what if they didn’t split up? What if they became like Bill and Fleur, and it became excruciatingly embarrassing to be in their presence, so that he was shut out for good?”_ – I love that entire scene where Harry desperately tries not to overhear his friends and their awkward conversation. But also Harry, Captain Oblivious himself, acts like he was obviously aware of the fact that Ron and Hermione like each other quite a lot. Like everyone and their mother knows, but that usually means Harry doesn’t. Like he doesn’t even know yet that he has a thing for Ginny, despite Slughorn’s love potion smelling like her and it needs some serious jealousy attack in this chapter for him to realize. But I also get Harry’s concern and how a romance between Hermione and Ron would affect his friendship with the two of them. We never actually get to see Ron and Hermione as a couple for reasons, and by the time they get together Harry is with Ginny and they no longer attend school together. But I guess their relationship is as wonderful complicated as their friendship.


  * That is to say, I know there are some people out there who never quite understood how Ron and Hermione got together, as it seems that they are fighting the whole time and that they are quite different. But I never doubted that they belong together. Every relationship works different and I always believed that the reason why they fight so much is because they genuinely care about each other. They wouldn’t bother that much if it wasn’t. And you can be super annoyed by someone and still like them, those things don’t exclude each other.


  * _“As Harry had endured much worse mutterings than this in his school career, he was not particularly bothered, but all the same, the pressure was increasing to provide a win in the upcoming match against Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, Harry knew that the whole house would forget that they had criticised him and swear that they had always known it was a great team. If they lost … well, Harry thought wryly, he had still endured worse mutterings …”_ – It is interesting that Harry’s function as captain of the team also makes him the coach. (As it was with Oliver and Angelina.. and it just took me six books to notice this.. nevermind) And the golden rule when it comes to sportballs is that every team has an entire nation, or in this case house, as a coach. Everyone has an opinion and everyone knows better.


  * _“‘Yeah, it is!’ said Ron, just as angrily. ‘D’you think I want people saying my sister’s a –’ ‘A what?’ shouted Ginny, drawing her wand. ‘A what, exactly?’”_ – I’m glad we never find out what word exactly Ron wanted to use (probably ‘scarlet woman’), but just as Fred and George what he does is basically slutshaming. Like I guess it is normal to tease your siblings over their first boyfriend/girlfriend, as the twins will later do with Ron after they found out about Lavender, and of course as older brothers they are protective of their baby sister. Still, the way both the twins and Ron speak to Ginny is not okay. Ron doesn’t tease Ginny, he is angry at her, and I don’t think it is because he is jealous she found someone to snog and he didn’t. He generally dislikes the idea of her being with a boy, of her becoming a woman, of her (sooner or later) becoming sexual active. He patronise her in the worst way, thinking he as a man owns the right to control what she does with her body and with whom.


  * _“‘Harry’s snogged Cho Chang!’ shouted Ginny, who sounded close to tears now. ‘And Hermione snogged Viktor Krum, it’s only you who acts like it’s something disgusting, Ron, and that’s because you’ve got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old!’”_ – I always felt as a teenager (and even now as an adult), that there is this pressure that you need to have a certain experience at a certain age. Like there might be something wrong with you if you are sixteen and never kissed someone. Which is obviously stupid. But it also hits a nerve with Ron, who has always compared himself with his brothers, with Harry, with everyone. And of course the fact that Hermione kissed Krum, which we only learn about now. For obvious reasons she only shared this kind of information with Ginny, and it shows how hurt Ginny is by Ron’s accusation that she lets that bomb drop now.


  * _“She’s Ron’s sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron’s sister. She’s out of bounds. He would not risk his friendship with Ron for anything.”_ – The thing is however that Harry shouldn’t feel like he has to decide between Ron or Ginny, that Ron should simply accept if his sister and his best friend want to be together.


  * The whole Felix Felicis trick only works because Harry knows his two best friends so well. He knew that Hermione would call him out for it, and he also knew that Ron doesn’t like it when Hermione is “bossing him around” and would drink his pumpkin juice anyway. What Harry did not know was how horrible his plan would backfire.




	15. Chapter 15: The Unbreakable Vow

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 15: The Unbreakable Vow**

  * _“Determined as he was to remain friends with both Ron and Hermione, he was spending a lot of time with his mouth shut tight.”_ – I think it is clear that Harry is a bit more on Hermione’s side when it comes to this conflict, because she had done nothing wrong, except that Ron found out she kissed someone two years ago. And obviously she is no longer interested in Krum, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked Ron to go with her to Slughorn’s Christmas party. And the way Ron acted when Hermione went with Krum to the Yule Ball it is obvious why she never told him that they kissed. So really it is Ron who acts like a major jerk, and Harry knows that, but he feels like he can’t say anything or might risk his friendship with Ron. Which, you know, is stupid. Friends should be allowed to call you out if you act stupid. Hermione does it all the time and Ginny as well tells Harry when he acts like an idiot. So Harry stays silent because he feels that whatever he might say on the subject is wrong, hoping the two of them fix things eventually (and hey, it only takes Ron nearly dying).


  * _“’[…]But something that’s just been put in the wrong bottle wouldn’t register – and anyway, love potions aren’t Dark or dangerous –’ ‘Easy for you to say,’ muttered Harry, thinking of Romilda Vane.”_ – Slughorn was right in telling his class that the love potion was the most dangerous potion in their classroom. They are the magical version of rape-drugs. And yet they are not illegal, they wouldn’t even register as dangerous. Of course the potions the twins sell might not be comparable with the love potion Merope Gaunt used on Tom Riddle, but still. You abuse someone’s consent, but as I wrote about several times consent isn’t that valued in the Wizarding World it seems.


  * _“‘It’s just a book that’s been written in!’ said Harry, tugging it out of her grip. She looked as though she might have a seizure; […]”_ – As someone who doesn’t like to write in books as well I think she kinda has a point.


  * _“‘It’s not my fault she’s barking mad, Hermione. Or d’you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I’ve always thought there might be something going on between them …’”_ – To be honest, this is the only spin-off I’m interested in: Pince & Filch, the early years.


  * Also, think about Hermione, who has to share a dormitory with Lavender, the person she probably dislikes the most at the moment.


  * _“‘He says very funny things sometimes, doesn’t he?’ said Luna, as they set off down the corridor together. ‘But he can be a bit unkind. I noticed that last year.’”_ – I think this sums up Ron quite well. He is the friend you can always have a lot of fun with, but he can also be very tactless and mean. And among the three friends (Harry, Ron & Hermione) Ron is the most immature, who doesn’t grow up until book 7, whereas Harry is already more grown up here in their sixth year (Hermione has always been mature).


  * _“‘You could’ve taken anyone!’ said Ron in disbelief over dinner. ‘Anyone! And you chose Loony Lovegood?’ ‘Don’t call her that, Ron,’ snapped Ginny, pausing behind Harry on her way to join friends. ‘I’m really glad you’re taking her, Harry, she’s so excited.’”_ – Perfect example of Ron being a jerk: he still calls Luna ‘Loony’, despite the fact that they fought in the ministry together. And I love Ginny for a) calling out her brother and b) being genuinely happy for her friend.


  * _“[…]… oh, hi, Hermione!’ Parvati positively beamed. Harry could tell that she was feeling guilty for having laughed at Hermione in Transfiguration. He looked around and saw that Hermione was beaming back, if possible even more brightly. Girls were very strange sometimes.”_ – I mean yes, they are, but don’t tell anyone.


  * _“‘What’s happened to you?’ asked Harry, for Hermione looked distinctly dishevelled, rather as though she had just fought her way out of a thicket of Devil’s Snare. ‘Oh, I’ve just escaped – I mean, I’ve just left Cormac,’ she said. ‘Under the mistletoe,’ she added in explanation, as Harry continued to look questioningly at her. ‘Serves you right for coming with him,’ he told her severely.”_ – Like it is obvious that McLaggen groped Hermione against her will, if anything Harry should be angry and jinx him instead of telling Hermione that she deserved this. Just… don’t. DON’T.


  * And then Harry’s biggest concern is that Hermione might tell Ron she confuded McLaggen at the try-outs, and what it would mean for Ron’s performance as keeper. Can I just hit him?


  * _“And why was Snape looking at Malfoy as though both angry and … was it possible? … a little afraid?”_ – I don’t think Snape is afraid of Draco, but rather for him, wondering how far he is with the task he has been given, because I do believe he genuinely cares about him after all.


  * _“There was a pause and then Snape said quietly, ‘Ah … Aunt Bellatrix has been teaching you Occlumency, I see. What thoughts are you trying to conceal from your master, Draco?’”_ – I think Rowling herself once said that the reason Draco succeeded at Occlumency, whereas Harry had failed, is because Draco is used to shut down his emotions. It is something he has been doing his entire life. Perhaps in some ways it was expected from him, even as a child, but later in life it was necessary for him to become the bully he is. And even though Harry does not like to talk about his feelings he has a hard time controlling them, especially his anger.


  * _“‘If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres—’”_ – So, does that mean Crabbe and Goyle have to retake their fifth year because they didn’t get enough O.W.L.’s?


  * I really find the display of the relationship between Draco and Snape quite interesting in this chapter. We know that Snape usually favours students from his own house, especially Draco, and that Draco in return sucks it up to Snape. Of course Snape and Lucius Malfoy know each other from the days when they were both Death Eaters and it is possible Draco had contact with Snape outside school. In her time of crisis Narcissa turns to Snape of all people, showing the deep trust she has in him. I do think that, Unbreakable Vow or not, Snape does care about Draco and wants to protect him. But we see here the kind of effect Voldemort has on his followers: instead of accepting his help Draco accuses Snape that he wants to steal his glory; they are pitted against each other. Voldemort does not want his followers to form bonds, to help each other, afraid that united they could turn against him. He wants them to live in fear and to see each other as competition.




	16. Chapter 16: A Very Frosty Christmas

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 16: A Very Frosty Christmas**

  * _“‘Fred and George tried to get me to make one when I was about five. I nearly did, too, I was holding hands with Fred and everything when Dad found us. He went mental,’ said Ron, with a reminiscent gleam in his eyes.”_ – If Ron was five that means the twins were seven and I doubt they could have done any severe damage. They didn’t even had wands back then and the spell to do the Unbreakable Vow seems a bit too complex for children.


  * There is an obvious difference between the way the twins talk to Ron after they found out he had a girlfriend and the way they talked to Ginny about her boyfriend. They tease Ron, but they never act like his reputation is at risk. It is a very obvious example of sexism.


  * _“‘They didn’t hear him,’ said Harry flatly. ‘No one’s that good an actor, not even Snape.’”_ – As a matter of fact he is probably the best actor of all time.


  * _“Fred, George, Harry and Ron were the only ones who knew that the angel on top of the tree was actually a garden gnome that had bitten Fred on the ankle as he pulled up carrots for Christmas dinner. Stupefied, painted gold, stuffed into a miniature tutu and with small wings glued to its back, it glowered down at them all, the ugliest angel Harry had ever seen, with a large bald head like a potato and rather hairy feet.”_ – I need some fan art of this, asap.


  * _“‘I neither like nor dislike Severus,’ said Lupin. ‘No, Harry, I am speaking the truth,’ he added, as Harry pulled a sceptical expression. ‘We shall never be bosom friends, perhaps; after all that happened between James and Sirius and Severus, there is too much bitterness there. But I do not forget that during the year I taught at Hogwarts, Severus made the Wolfsbane Potion for me every month, made it perfectly, so that I did not have to suffer as I usually do at the full moon.’” –_ I mean we ignore the fact that Snape had wanted to see both Lupin and Sirius dead, despite the fact that there was proof that both were innocent. And while Lupin is right to feel grateful towards Snape for keeping him healthy, I think Snape did not make the potion out of the goodness of his heart, but on Dumbledore’s order and because he obviously did not want the risk of a werewolf wandering around Hogwarts. But despite the fact that they are both in the Order it does not seem like Snape continued to make the Wolfbane Potion for Lupin. By now of course Lupin is undercover among other werewolves, but still. Snape’s helpfulness only went as far as Dumbledore ordered it to be.


  * _“’Greyback specialises in children … bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards. Voldemort has threatened to unleash him upon people’s sons and daughters; it is a threat that usually produces good results.’”_ – Enough has been written and said about Greyback being a predator and how problematic it is to portray him as someone who prefers to bite children, so I leave it with that.


  * _“‘But you are normal!’ said Harry fiercely. ‘You’ve just got a – a problem –’ Lupin burst out laughing. ‘Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my “furry little problem” in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit.’”_ – Harry of course had almost an entire year, where he got close to Lupin, before he had learned about him being a werewolf (and even then he didn’t trust him immediately). But most people don’t even get there. They wouldn’t even bother to find out what kind of man Lupin is once they know he is a werewolf. They most likely never met a werewolf in their life and are full of prejudices. They only see the monster, not the man. Whereas Harry first and foremost sees the man and forgets about the monster.


  * _“‘There are no wizarding princes,’ said Lupin, now smiling.”_ – But has there ever been a Wizard monarchy? Or did they always have a democracy and government? And if they had a monarchy did it stop having power at the same it did in the Muggle world?


  * _“Ron fell asleep almost immediately, but Harry delved into his trunk and pulled out his copy of Advanced Potion-Making before getting into bed. There he turned its pages, searching, until he finally found, at the front of the book, the date that it had been published. It was nearly fifty years old. Neither his father, nor his father’s friends, had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago.”_ – Because obviously using a second-hand book is a thing Harry has never heard about.


  * _“‘Well … we don’t really talk much,’ said Ron. ‘It’s mainly …’ ‘Snogging,’ said Harry.”_ – No offence though, like we all had those relationships as teenagers that simply existed to get some experience. But I think that’s something else about Ron and Hermione, even though they might be different, they do know each other really well, they know how the other works (and also unfortunately what would hurt the other the most), so despite their differences they have a deep bond and trust.


  * _“[…]Mrs Weasley herself, who was sporting a brand new midnight-blue witch’s hat glittering with what looked like tiny starlike diamonds, and a spectacular golden necklace. ‘Fred and George gave them to me! Aren’t they beautiful?’ ‘Well, we find we appreciate you more and more, Mum, now we’re washing our own socks,’ said George, waving an airy hand.”_ – The twins might be the children Mrs Weasley had to scold with the most and it always seemed like their mother was the only one Fred & George ever feared, but they are not ungrateful. They do appreciate all the hard work their mother did for them and they try to give something back to her.


  * _“She gave Lupin an annoyed look, as though it was all his fault she was getting Fleur for a daughter-in-law instead of Tonks, but Harry, glancing across at Fleur, who was now feeding Bill bits of turkey off her own fork, thought that Mrs Weasley was fighting a long-lost battle. He was, however, reminded of a question he had with regard to Tonks, and who better to ask than Lupin, the man who knew all about Patronuses? ‘Tonks’s Patronus has changed its form,’ he told him. ‘Snape said so, anyway. I didn’t know that could happen. Why would your Patronus change?’ Lupin took his time chewing his turkey and swallowing before saying slowly, ‘Sometimes … a great shock … an emotional upheaval …’ ‘It looked big, and it had four legs,’ said Harry, struck by a sudden thought and lowering his voice. ‘Hey … it couldn’t be –?’”_ – I really love how completely misinterpreting Harry is the entire situation. Mrs Weasley does blame Lupin for Tonk’s absence, but for completely different reasons. And of course there is more than one big creature with four legs.


  * _“[…]Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden … ah, that young man’s finished, why doesn’t he take a stroll with me?’ The atmosphere around the table changed perceptibly. Everybody looked from Scrimgeour to Harry. Nobody seemed to find Scrimgeour’s pretence that he did not know Harry’s name convincing, or find it natural that he should be chosen to accompany the Minister around the garden when Ginny, Fleur and George also had clean plates.”_ – Scrimgeour’s plan is so obvious that it hurts. And obviously this is yet another way Percy breaks his mother’s heart, because he must be aware that they would find out the real reason for their visit, and that the family reunion is nothing more than an act to get to Harry.


  * _“‘It’s fine,’ he said quietly, as he passed Lupin, who had half risen from his chair. ‘Fine,’ he added, as Mr Weasley opened his mouth to speak.”_ – I totally get why neither Lupin or Mr Weasley want to leave Harry alone with Scrimgeour. Harry is still 16 after all and Scrimgeour wants to manipulative him for his own advantages. But I love the entire conversation that follows, how Harry knows exactly what the Ministry wants from him and how he stands his ground. The last year gave him a rather ugly look at how politics work and disillusioned him.


  * One of things Scrimgeour mentions is that it is Harry’s duty to help the Ministry and I wonder why he would think that. In which ways does Harry owe the Ministry anything at all? When did they ever help him? Sure, Fudge made it possible that Harry was not accused for underage magic after he blew up aunt Marge, but two years later he tried everything in his power to damage Harry’s reputation. Fudge had used Harry because he is a public figure and now Srimgeour does the very same thing. Furthermore Scrimgeour mentions the Head of the Auror office, implying that he could help Harry with his wish to become an Auror, but between the lines it also means he could prevent Harry from becoming one. He holds Harry’s future as a bargain.


  * _“‘Yeah, and others might say it’s your duty to check people really are Death Eaters before you chuck them in prison,’ said Harry, his temper rising now. ‘You’re doing what Barty Crouch did. You never get it right, you people, do you? Either we’ve got Fudge, pretending everything’s lovely while people get murdered right under his nose, or we’ve got you, chucking the wrong people into jail and trying to pretend you’ve got the Chosen One working for you!’”_ – Harry clearly sees the parallel to what has happened the last time Voldemort was in power, how the fear and terror lead to injustice, how the Ministry tries to show strength and becomes a dictatorship in doing so. But I think it also reflects Rowling’s own opinion on politics. There are no good politicians in her world. Neither Fudge or Scrimgeour got it right; both abuse their power and both use Harry for it (first as a scapegoat, now as a mascot). Arguably the message here is that power will always corrupt, at least the ones who crave for it (as we will also see in book 7 regarding Dumbledore).


  * _“‘Well, it is clear to me that he has done a very good job on you,’ said Scrimgeour, his eyes cold and hard behind his wire-rimmed glasses. ‘Dumbledore’s man through and through, aren’t you, Potter?’ ‘Yeah, I am,’ said Harry. ‘Glad we straightened that out.’”_ – By now this seems like a positive statement, as if Dumbledore is the only one we can trust and who is always right. But with the things we learn about Dumbledore in book 7 we see Scrimgeour’s statement in a different light, because there is some (ugly) truth to it. Dumbledore did in fact a good job on Harry, he did manipulate him in his own ways, so that Harry at least by now puts blind faith in him.




	17. Chapter 17: A Sluggish Memory

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 17: A Sluggish Memory**

  * _“Late in the afternoon, a few days after New Year, Harry, Ron and Ginny lined up beside the kitchen fire to return to Hogwarts. The Ministry had arranged this one-off connection to the Floo Network to return students quickly and safely to the school.”_ – But what about those students who don’t have access to the Floo Network, like Hermione and other Muggleborns? And it also doesn’t seem like they all arrive at the same time, so McGonagall has students dropping in her office all day.


  * So Apparation lessons cost no less than 12 Galleons? And the fact that Ron not mentioned this once, just like he didn’t talk about his new potions book costing 9 Galleons, really must mean the Weasleys have more money now. Though I think it is interesting that Apparation is something you don’t learn at school but through a Ministry approved course. Bit like driving lessons then. And just like them perhaps not every student can afford them.


  * _“‘I forgot you’d already done it … I’d better pass my test first time,’ said Ron, looking anxious. ‘Fred and George did.’ ‘Charlie failed, though, didn’t he?’ ‘Yeah, but Charlie’s bigger than me,’ Ron held his arms out from his body as though he were a gorilla, ‘so Fred and George didn’t go on about it much … not to his face, anyway …’”_ – Despite the fact that the twins are no longer at school Ron still thinks about their reaction and compares himself with them. But I guess lifelong unhealthy habits are hard to get rid of.


  * _“Lost in visions of this happy prospect, he flicked his wand a little too enthusiastically, so that instead of producing the fountain of pure water that was the object of that day’s Charms lesson, he let out a hoselike jet that ricocheted off the ceiling and knocked Professor Flitwick flat on his face. ‘Harry’s already Apparated,’ Ron told a slightly abashed Seamus, after Professor Flitwick had dried himself off with a wave of his wand and set Seamus lines (‘I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick’).”_ – You know I don’t think we appreciate Flitwick as a character enough.


  * _“‘It was Fudge’s idea originally, you know. During his last days in office, when he was trying desperately to cling to his post, he sought a meeting with you, hoping that you would give him your support –’ ‘After everything Fudge did last year?’ said Harry angrily. ‘After Umbridge?’”_ – You know, now that I think about it, Fudge never actually apologized, which was the very least he could do. He would have if he had ever had the chance to meet Harry, but only to get him on his side. I’m not sure Fudge actually felt remorse for the way he treated Harry. He created his own version of the truth, where he justified all of his actions.


  * _“‘So, sir,’ said Harry, in what he hoped was a polite, calm voice, ‘you definitely still trust –?’ ‘I have been tolerant enough to answer that question already,’ said Dumbledore, but he did not sound very tolerant any more. ‘My answer has not changed.’”_ – I think this is the only time Dumbledore is strict with Harry. But it is a question of trust. Just as Lupin told Harry over Christmas: the question is not whether to trust Snape but if you trust Dumbledore’s judgement of Snape’s character. And obviously Dumbledore can’t tell Harry why he trusts Snape; in the end only Snape could make the choice to share this information with Harry. But Dumbledore asks Harry to trust him and Harry can’t, not entirely, not when it comes to Snape, and this causes a small rift between them.


  * _“‘No, I did not. Though he had shown no hint of remorse, it was possible that he felt sorry for how he had behaved before and was resolved to turn over a fresh leaf. I chose to give him that chance.’ Dumbledore paused and looked enquiringly at Harry, who had opened his mouth to speak. Here, again, was Dumbledore’s tendency to trust people in spite of overwhelming evidence that they did not deserve it! But then Harry remembered something … ‘But you didn’t really trust him, sir, did you? He told me … the Riddle who came out of that diary said “Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did”.’ ‘Let us say that I did not take it for granted that he was trustworthy,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I had, as I have already indicated, resolved to keep a close eye upon him, and so I did. […]”_ – There is a clear parallel to Snape here. Same as he did with young Tom Dumbledore decided to give Snape a second chance, because everyone deserves one. And yet, it is possible Dumbledore never trusted Snape a hundred percent either; at least he kept a close eye on him as well. His refusal to give him the position for the DADA teacher for so long indicates this, because Dumbledore wanted to keep Snape away from the Dark Arts as much as possible. Unlike Tom Riddle though Dumbledore knows that Snape feels remorse for his actions, and he knows the very reason why, and in the end this is why he puts the ultimate trust in Snape, telling him about the Horcruxes, asking Snape to kill him, trusting Snape to play his role in Dumbledore’s big plan even after Dumbledore’s death.


  * _“‘I have not been able to find many memories of Riddle at Hogwarts,’ said Dumbledore, placing his withered hand on the Pensieve. ‘Few who knew him then are prepared to talk about him; they are too terrified.”_ – This indicates that those people do know that Tom Riddle became Lord Voldemort. However I always had the impression that Hagrid never knew that Tom Riddle and Voldemort are the same person, and that Voldemort himself did the best to leave his past behind him, in changing both his name and face, creating a completely new identity. Perhaps those people who knew him back then, knew him as Tom Riddle, are right to be terrified, because the secret to defeat Voldemort is in his past, in those very few unguarded moments, before the man became a monster.


  * _“Finally he was forced to accept that his father had never set foot in Hogwarts. I believe that it was then that he dropped the name for ever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother’s family – the woman whom, you will remember, he had thought could not be a witch if she had succumbed to the shameful human weakness of death.”_ – I think human life in itself is defined by the fact that it will end. And knowing that our time is limited gives it value in the end. But I think Voldemort perhaps did define himself to be above humans. Being a wizard already made him special, and even among other wizards he was special, with his heritage, with his abilities. But even wizards die, even magic can’t prevent death, not until you are ready to sacrifice your soul. (And what’s a human without a soul?) And so Voldemort created himself and shaped himself into something barely recognizable as a human being, because if you are no longer human you can longer die. But when he does die in the end the question is as what.


  * I do wonder if Morfin put one and one together and realized that Merope gave birth to a son who turned out to be a wizard, or if he was simply too drunk (and dumb) to realize the truth.


  * We do learn two very importing things about memories in this chapter: you can implant a false memory into the mind of someone else and you can alter your own memory. Therefore not even memories can be a reliable source. They can be changed, erased or overwritten, and this again is another case of abusing consent. We are made of our memories and to take them away, to change them or to implant us false memories changes fundamentally who we are.


  * Also Dumbledore says he gained Morfin’s real memory through Legilimency, so Morfin did not give Dumbledore his memory freely. It is possible he agreed that Dumbledore could use Legilimency on him, otherwise the whole thing is quite problematic, no matter Dumbledore’s intentions.


  * _“‘You are quite right – they can detect magic, but not the perpetrator: you will remember that you were blamed by the Ministry for the Hover Charm that was, in fact, cast by –’ ‘Dobby,’ growled Harry; this injustice still rankled. ‘So if you’re under age and you do magic inside an adult witch or wizard’s house, the Ministry won’t know?’_ ” – Remember in book 4 when Hermione used a spell (I think it was ‘Lumos’) during the Quidditch World Cup, after the mass panic had broken out, and nothing had happened to her? Now we know why. There were so many wizards and witches there, all of them using magic, that it was impossible to trace that spell back to her (and Hermione probably knew that because she had read it somewhere). But considering this, the rule that forbids underage wizards and witches to use magic, is stupid. Basically every child in a magical household could get away with it, though I wonder how many of them know about it. Earlier Ron did complain over Christmas that he could not use magic to help him peeling sprouts for Christmas dinner. And if you, like Harry, are the only wizard within your neighbourhood every bit of magic will be traced back to you, even if you are sometimes not responsible.


  * _“Harry noticed that the contents proved difficult to empty into the Pensieve, as though they had congealed slightly; did memories go off?”_ – Imagine it though, all those memories with little ‘best before’ labels.


  * _“His right hand lay negligently upon the arm of his chair; with a jolt, Harry saw that he was wearing Marvolo’s gold and black ring; he had already killed his father.”_ – Not sure if the opening of the Chamber of Secrets happened before or after the murder of his remaining family, but Riddle leaves school and has already committed four murders. What is interesting is that he only learns now about Horcruxes, after he had killed his father and grandparents. So is it possible to create a Horcrux even some time after the murder, not just in the process of it?


  * _“It is, as you will have noticed, very crudely done, and that is all to the good, for it shows that the true memory is still there beneath the alterations.”_ – I wonder if you can erase a memory for good. Dumbledore was able to find Morfin’s real memory underneath a false one, and it is the same with Slughorn: the real memory is still there. Despite both Riddle and Slughorn being very talented wizards they could not fully erase/change a memory. I wonder however what it does to you and your mind if the real memory is still there, but hidden, what kind of trauma that can cause.


  * _“‘He [Slughorn] is much more accomplished at Occlumency than poor Morfin Gaunt, […].”_ – This does make it sound like Dumbledore took Morfin’s memory against his will.


  * _“‘No, I think it would be foolish to attempt to wrest the truth from Professor Slughorn by force, and might do much more harm than good; I do not wish him to leave Hogwarts.”_ – So Dumbledore does not want to use force on Slughorn because it is morally wrong but because he is afraid Slughorn might leave (though it is possible he is simply afraid Slughorn will become a target again outside Hogwarts). But clearly Dumbledore thinks the end does justify the means.


  * Also, Dumbledore does the very same as Scrimgeour, he uses Harry for his own means. He might be more open about it his intentions; he told Harry he needed him to get Slughorn back to Hogwarts in the first place and now he needs him to get the real memory from Slughorn. And perhaps it is the fact that he acknowledges that he needs Harry, that he uses him, that makes Harry agree to do what he is told. Harry trusts Dumbledore and his trust is repaid with honesty (as honest as Dumbledore can be with Harry at this point).




	18. Chapter 18: Birthday Surprises

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 18: Birthday Surprises**

  * _“‘It’s a shame that the Prince won’t be able to help you much with this, Harry,’ she said brightly as she straightened up. ‘You have to understand the principles involved this time. No short cuts or cheats!’ […]Harry pulled out his trusty copy of Advanced Potion-Making and turned to the chapter on Antidotes. There was Golpalott’s Third Law, stated word for word as Hermione had recited it, but not a single illuminating note in the Prince’s hand to explain what it meant. Apparently the Prince, like Hermione, had had no difficulty understanding it.”_ – I mean the very reason why Snape improved so many potion recipes (and then never shared them with his own students) is because he understood the principles of potion making. There is more to it than simply following instructions, Slughorn even calls it “an almost alchemical process”, something that Hermione just like Snape understands.


  * _“‘Sir,’ said Harry, reminding himself irresistibly of Voldemort, ‘I wanted to ask you something.’ ‘Ask away, then, my dear boy, ask away …’ ‘Sir, I wondered what you know about … about Horcruxes?’ Slughorn froze. His round face seemed to sink in upon itself.”_ – Even Harry himself realizes how eerily similar the situation is to young Tom Riddle asking Slughorn the very same question. But it must be haunting for Slughorn, who is so deeply ashamed of what he did, getting asked the same question again, by the very boy who defeated Voldemort, and who reminds Slughorn so much of Lily, for whose death he feels partly responsible. And as Tom Riddle once noted in the Chamber of Secrets Harry even looks a bit like him. The past is coming after Slughorn; you can’t escape your ghosts.


  * _“They were temporarily detained by Peeves, who had jammed a door on the fourth floor shut and was refusing to let anyone pass until they set fire to their own pants, but Harry and Ron simply turned back and took one of their trusted short cuts. Within five minutes, they were climbing through the portrait hole. […]He broke off as Neville entered the dormitory, bringing with him a strong smell of singed material, and began rummaging in his trunk for a fresh pair of pants.”_ – There are several pages between those two sentences; I love Rowling’s attention to details.


  * It is a totally Harry move that while he suspects that Draco is up to something it takes him 6 months to realize he can use the Marauder’s Map to properly stalk Draco. Coming to think about it the map is a tool of total surveillance and a massive invasion in one’s privacy (but hey since when seemed anyone bothered by those things in the Wizarding World?).


  * _“As for the fact that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle appeared to be going their different ways when they were usually inseparable, these things happened as people got older – Ron and Hermione, Harry reflected sadly, were living proof.”_ – That makes it sound like a tragic love triangle between Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle… better not to think about it.


  * _“Frustration was running high and there was a certain amount of ill-feeling towards Wilkie Twycross and his three Ds, which had inspired a number of nicknames for him, the politest of which were Dog-breath and Dung-head.”_ – Yeah, I can think of a few names teenagers would have used on him starting with ‘D’.


  * _“‘Was this potion within date?’ asked Slughorn, now eyeing Ron with professional interest. ‘They can strengthen, you know, the longer they’re kept.’”_ – Ron’s behaviour after he had accidently drunk the love potion might be meant to be funny, but it really isn’t. He gets aggressive towards Harry and acts clearly obsessed. It is possible that within date the effect of the love potion wouldn’t be quite that intense, but that shows just how dangerous it can be. The longer you keep them the stronger they become; something even Fred and George might not have foreseen. Those potions can be legally purchased at a joke’s shop, therefore they are presented as a joke device, and yet they can cause quite dangerous consequences. (The potion Ron drank had been lying around for roughly three months, so one can only imagine its effects after 6 months, a year, or even longer than that)


  * And then we have Slughorn, a teacher, handing out alcohol to his students. Sure Ron is off by age now, but they are still at school and it is early in the morning. It is never mentioned which day it is, by according to my research March first 1997 was a Saturday, so at least they didn’t have any classes. Still, Slughorn acts a bit too casual when it comes to alcohol, and seems to forget that most of his students are still minors.


  * _“‘There you are, then,’ said Slughorn, handing Harry and Ron a glass of mead each, before raising his own. ‘Well, a very happy birthday, Ralph –’ ‘– Ron –’ whispered Harry.”_ – I always thought that teachers who can’t remember their student’s name act very disrespectful. Yes, there are many students at Hogwarts, but in the case of Slughorn this is also a very clear sign of his favouritism.


  * _“‘Professor!’ Harry bellowed. ‘Do something!’ But Slughorn seemed paralysed by shock. Ron twitched and choked: his skin was turning blue. ‘What – but –’ spluttered Slughorn.”_ – I don’t think we should judge Slughorn too hard for him being too shocked to help; people react very different to emergencies and crisis. Harry on the other hand is used to react fast and immediate, he is always on alert, he has to be in order to survive and to help others. Which will make him a great Auror one day.




	19. Chapter 19: Elf Tails

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 19: Elf Tails**

  * _“Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened, she had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny’s obsessive discussion about how Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking, until at last they had been allowed in to see him.”_ – It is hard that it took Ron almost dying for him and Hermione to make up and speak again and rekindle their friendship. Not to be melodramatic on main but whenever you fight with someone, whenever you feel like you can longer talk with each other, the reasons for it are usually not worth the fight. Don’t get to the point where you regret you never made up with someone. And I think this is what Hermione has been thinking about all day: how she almost lost Ron without the chance to make up, with all the anger and hurt feelings between them, and how trivial the reason for them fighting seems now. Something to consider before you throw away a friendship.


  * _“‘Who’d want to kill Slughorn?’ ‘Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side,’ said Harry. ‘Slughorn was in hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. And …’ he thought of the memory Dumbledore had not yet been able to extract from Slughorn, ‘and maybe Voldemort wants him out of the way, maybe he thinks he could be valuable to Dumbledore.’”_ – I think this is the real reason Voldemort is after Slughorn – right now he is the only one who knows about the secret of his immortality and therefore how he could become mortal again.


  * _“‘But you said Slughorn had been planning to give that bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas,’ Ginny reminded him. ‘So the poisoner could just as easily have been after Dumbledore.’ ‘Then the poisoner didn’t know Slughorn very well,’ said Hermione, speaking for the first time in hours and sounding as though she had a bad head-cold. ‘Anyone who knew Slughorn would have known there was a good chance he’d keep something that tasty for himself.’”_ – It is the same pattern as with the Cursed necklace – there was a big chance the necklace would never make it into the castle, just as there was a big chance the poisoned mead would never make it to Dumbledore given Slughorn’s nature. Both times Dumbledore was the actual target, both times the execution was sloppy and careless. And this is something Dumbledore points out later in his final conversation with Draco, that perhaps Draco never wanted to succeed, that he might have even hoped Dumbledore would put a stop to it.


  * _“‘Well, for one thing, they both ought to have been fatal and weren’t, although that was pure luck. And for another, neither the poison nor the necklace seems to have reached the person who was supposed to be killed. Of course,’ she added broodingly, ‘that makes the person behind this even more dangerous in a way, because they don’t seem to care how many people they finish off before they actually reach their victim.’”_ – If we do believe Dumbledore that Draco secretly wanted his plans to fail, I don’t think it was his intention to hurt others in the process, or even kill them. If Katie hadn’t touched the necklace then surely Filch’s Secrecy Sensors would have detected the necklace. And he might have assumed that either Slughorn or Dumbledore would have tested the mead of poison before drinking it. Draco is, as Dumbledore tells him, not a killer.


  * _“‘I mean, it’s always bin a bit of a risk sendin’ a kid ter Hogwarts, hasn’ it? Yer expect accidents, don’ yeh, with hundreds of under-age wizards all locked up tergether, but attempted murder, tha’s diff ’rent.”_ – Is there a compulsory education in the Wizarding World or is it up to the parents to decide whether they send their kids to school or teach them at home? Hagrid’s wording makes it sound like home-schooling is an option, because surely not just Hogwarts but every Wizarding school is a bit risky for the same reasons (though clearly the weirdest stuff always happens at Hogwarts).


  * Also by now it is an established plot device that whenever Harry needs to know something he isn’t supposed to know to just let Hagrid accidently tell him.


  * _“‘I’m a ruddy teacher, aren’ I, yeh sneakin’ Squib!’ said Hagrid, firing up at once.”_ – Using the word ‘Squib’ as an insult is not very cool, Hagrid.


  * _“‘I’ve been waiting for you to come back,’ said McLaggen, disregarding Harry’s drawn wand. ‘Must’ve fallen asleep. Look, I saw them taking Weasley up to the hospital wing earlier. Didn’t look like he’ll be fit for next week’s match.’”_ – Leave it to McLaggen to use the first chance he gets to get a place in the Quidditch team. I mean Ron, Harry’s best friend, has been in the hospital wing for hours, clearly Harry has other concerns, but all McLaggen cares about is Quidditch and his chance to play. Jerk.


  * _“Harry, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch; he was rapidly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy.”_ – A sentence straight out of a fan fiction, I am sure.


  * _“‘Yeah, I’m really going to tell you, because it’s your business, Potter,’ sneered Malfoy. ‘You’d better hurry up, they’ll be waiting for the Chosen Captain – the Boy Who Scored – whatever they call you these days.’”_ – The Boy Who Scored. THE BOY WHO SCORED. I mean it does sound like the porn version of Harry Potter, just so you know it.


  * _“Then Cadwallader scored again, making things level, but Luna did not seem to have noticed; she appeared singularly uninterested in such mundane things as the score, and kept attempting to draw the crowd’s attention to such things as interestingly shaped clouds and the possibility that Zacharias Smith, who had so far failed to maintain possession of the Quaffle for longer than a minute, was suffering from something called ‘Loser’s Lurgy’.”_ – As much as I am not interested in Quidditch I would love to hear Luna comment matches.


  * _“‘Ginny came in to visit while you were unconscious,’ he said, after a long pause, and Harry’s imagination zoomed into overdrive, rapidly constructing a scene in which Ginny, weeping over his lifeless form, confessed her feelings of deep attraction to him while Ron gave them his blessing …”_ – Confirmed: Harry James Potter secretly reads romance novels.


  * _“‘Dobby is a free house-elf and he can obey anyone he likes and Dobby will do whatever Harry Potter wants him to do!’ said Dobby, tears now streaming down his shrivelled little face on to his jumper.”_ – I had wondered about this last book. After Dobby had warned the DA about Umbridge Harry had forbidden him to hurt himself and Dobby had accepted that order. Now we know why. Dobby is free to choose his master (Dumbledore) and apparently he can obey more than one person, based on who he likes and respects.




	20. Chapter 20: Lord Voldemort’s Request

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 20: Lord Voldemort’s Request**

  * _“‘Yeah, well, there was no need for Ginny and Dean to split up over it,’ said Harry, still trying to sound casual. ‘Or are they still together?’ ‘Yes, they are – but why are you so interested?’ asked Hermione, giving giving Harry a sharp look. ‘I just don’t want my Quidditch team messed up again!’ he said hastily, but Hermione continued to look suspicious, […].”_ – Please Harry, you should know Hermione well enough by now to know you can never hide anything from her. Girl knows what is up.


  * _“‘Nice commentary last match!’ said Ron to Luna, as she took back the green onion, the toadstool and the cat litter. Luna smiled vaguely. ‘You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?’ she said. ‘Everyone says I was dreadful.’ ‘No, I’m serious!’ said Ron earnestly.”-_ Luna is so used that other people make fun of her that she doesn’t think Ron’s compliment is meant genuine. But it also says a lot about Ron, because he did make fun of her in the past quite often. Or as Luna said, “he can be a bit unkind”.


  * _“‘No,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Divination is turning out to be much more trouble than I could have foreseen, never having studied the subject myself. I cannot ask Firenze to return to the Forest, where he is now an outcast, nor can I ask Sybill Trelawney to leave. Between ourselves, she has no idea of the danger she would be in outside the castle. She does not know – and I think it would be unwise to enlighten her – that she made the prophecy about you and Voldemort, you see.’”_ – Imagine you run a school and the reason you can’t fire a teacher is because otherwise they would be in mortal danger. And I think it is fair to say we can add Slughorn to this list as well. But at least both Firenze and Slughorn are aware of the danger, whereas Trelawney is blissfully oblivious, which puts her even more at risk.


  * _“A hot, prickly feeling of shame spread from the top of Harry’s head all the way down his body. Dumbledore had not raised his voice, he did not even sound angry, but Harry would have preferred him to yell; this cold disappointment was worse than anything. ‘Sir,’ he said, a little desperately, ‘it isn’t that I wasn’t bothered or anything, I’ve just had other – other things …’ ‘Other things on your mind,’ Dumbledore finished the sentence for him. ‘I see.’”_ – Ironically my mother used the same tactic on me – she was never angry with me, but simply disappointed, because she had expected I would do better whenever I misbehaved. And I think Harry is used to anger; he spent years confronted with the anger of uncle Vernon and it is also how he reacts whenever something doesn’t go the way he wanted it to be. And anger can be very cathartic; after Sirius’s death Dumbledore gave Harry the chance to let out his anger because he knew it was what Harry needed at that moment. But he did not give him the satisfaction to be angry in return and he is not angry now, and Harry, who is so used to fight back, doesn’t know what to do. And of course Harry has had other things on his mind, as every teenager does, and Dumbledore is painfully aware of it. It is Dumbledore’s dilemma: he wants for Harry to be a normal teenager, to be concerned about Quidditch and schoolwork. And he wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important, if there was any other way to get this memory.


  * _“‘Firstly, and very importantly, Voldemort was, I believe, more attached to this school than he has ever been to a person. Hogwarts was where he had been happiest; the first and only place he had felt at home.’ Harry felt slightly uncomfortable at these words, for this was exactly how he felt about Hogwarts, too.”_ – This isn’t just a parallel between Harry and Voldemort but between Harry and Snape as well. The three boys without a home, because they either were orphans or came from an abusive family, or in Harry’s case both. But while both Voldemort and Snape wanted to stay there as teachers Harry was ready to leave his first real home behind because he had found a home and a family outside Hogwarts. (Though one has to wonder why Snape wanted to become a teacher; clearly not because he loves children that much)


  * _“‘And thirdly, as a teacher, he would have had great power and influence over young witches and wizards. Perhaps he had gained the idea from Professor Slughorn, the teacher with whom he was on best terms, who had demonstrated how influential a role a teacher can play. I do not imagine for an instant that Voldemort envisaged spending the rest of his life at Hogwarts, but I do think that he saw it as a useful recruiting ground, and a place where he might begin to build himself an army.’”_ – Slughorn is presented as a character who might not be the most sympathetic because of his favouritism but who appears to be harmless. Dumbledore himself said that while Slughorn seeks the attention of the powerful he does not want power for himself. However he could use his power and influence in a much sinister way, and the young Tom Riddle surely had realized that. He had worked his charm already on most of the adults in his life (with the exception of Dumbledore) and it would have been much easier to influence children, to gain new followers, or as Dumbledore said to build an army. Teachers are in a position of power, especially at Hogwarts, where children are far away from their parents, and Tom Riddle would have abused this power.


  * _“‘But he didn’t get the job, sir?’ ‘No, he did not. Professor Dippet told him that he was too young at eighteen, but invited him to reapply in a few years, if he still wished to teach.’”_ – We already know you don’t need any sort of extra education to become a teacher; Hagrid is a teacher and never even finished school. And obviously Tom Riddle was perhaps the most talented student Hogwarts ever had (next to Dumbledore), so clearly Dippet saw no need for him to study or anything (are their universities in the Wizarding World?). The only reason he did not get the job was his age, so perhaps Dippet thought Riddle was not mature enough yet.


  * _“‘Which job did he want, sir? What subject did he want to teach?’ Somehow, Harry knew the answer even before Dumbledore gave it. ‘Defence Against the Dark Arts.”_ – Another Harry-Snape-Voldemort-parallel. Both Voldemort and Snape wanted to get the job of the DADA teacher, and that is the subject Harry taught in his fifth year in the DA. Both Voldemort and Snape are fascinated by the Dark Arts, they are drawn to it, and according to Hermione Harry is as well, at least a little bit (Snape’s speech at the beginning of the school year reminded her of what Harry had told the DA). Harry’s fascination however is based on the fact that he has to understand the Dark Arts in order to survive and has no wish to use them on others.


  * _“‘How do I look?’ said Hepzibah, turning her head to admire the various angles of her face in the mirror. ‘Lovely, madam,’ squeaked Hokey.”_ – This is not the first time Riddle visits Hepzibah Smith, and it is obvious that she is very smitten by him and tries to look nice for him. Obvious Riddle has used his charm on her as well, but he had also used his good looks to his advantage. From what we know about Voldemort he is not interested in personal relationships and I can’t imagine him to be interested in sex as well (yes, ignoring ‘Cursed Child’ here). As Dumbledore already told Harry Riddle/Voldemort never had any friends, I don’t see him having any kind of romantic or sexual relationship either. And yet he is very aware of the effect he has on women (and perhaps some men as well); he does not care about his looks (otherwise he would not have transformed himself) but he sure uses his attractiveness to his advantage.


  * _“His greedy expression was curiously mirrored on Hepzibah’s face, except that her tiny eyes were fixed upon Voldemort’s handsome features.”_ – It is interesting that Hepzibah is described here as a predator, when she in fact will become the victim.


  * _“‘That’s right!’ said Hepzibah, delighted, apparently, at the sight of Voldemort gazing at her locket, transfixed. ‘I had to pay an arm and a leg for it, but I couldn’t let it pass, not a real treasure like that, had to have it for my collection. Burke bought it, apparently, from a ragged-looking woman who seemed to have stolen it, but had no idea of its true value –’ There was no mistaking it this time: Voldemort’s eyes flashed scarlet at her words and Harry saw his knuckles whiten on the locket’s chain.”_ – Is Riddle angry because Burke had betrayed his mother? Because he thinks the locket is rightfully his? We know that Riddle hated his father, because he was a Muggle, because he had left his mother, but what does he think about his mother? Did he changed her mind about her after he learned that she was a witch, an ancestor of Slytherin on top of it? Or did he look down on her, because she ran away with a Muggle, because she chose the human weakness of death even though she could have saved herself? I can’t imagine that he felt any kind of sympathy towards his mother for those very reasons, and that his anger here is clearly based on thinking the locket belongs to him.


  * _“‘Yes, that is my conclusion, too,’ said Dumbledore. ‘And, just as with Morfin, the Ministry was predisposed to suspect Hokey –’ ‘– because she was a house-elf,’ said Harry. He had rarely felt more in sympathy with the society Hermione had set up, S.P.E.W.”_ – If the ministry really suspected Hokey it shows how little they understand about house elves. Most of them are devoted to their masters and even the ones like Dobby who dislike their owners are programmed to obey and do as they are told. It is against the very nature of every house elf to hurt their master in any way. Despite being free Dobby still struggles to speak bad about the Malfoys and still wants to punish himself, so even if Hokey had a motive (and she seemed to like her mistress) she simply could not have killed Hepzibah.


  * _“The one difference between the present-day office and this one was that it was snowing in the past; bluish flecks were drifting past the window in the dark and building up on the outside ledge.”_ – Clearly it is winter, so why would Voldemort try to get a job as a teacher in the middle of the school year?


  * _“Harry let out a hastily stifled gasp. Voldemort had entered the room. His features were not those Harry had seen emerge from the great stone cauldron almost two years before; they were not as snakelike, the eyes were not yet scarlet, the face not yet masklike, and yet he was no longer handsome Tom Riddle. It was as though his features had been burned and blurred; they were waxy and oddly distorted, and the whites of the eyes now had a permanently bloody look, though the pupils were not yet the slits that Harry knew they would become. He was wearing a long black cloak and his face was as pale as the snow glistening on his shoulders.”_ – I guess this is what happens when you repeatedly rip your soul apart. The less you become human the less you look human as well.


  * _“‘They do not call me “Tom” any more,’ he said. ‘These days, I am known as –’ ‘I know what you are known as,’ said Dumbledore, smiling pleasantly. ‘But to me, I’m afraid, you will always be Tom Riddle. It is one of the irritating things about old teachers, I am afraid, that they never quite forget their charges’ youthful beginnings.’”_ – It is such a small thing but Dumbledore’s refusal to acknowledge the name Riddle has given himself means so much. It means he does not accept and furthermore does not fear the monster Riddle has created of himself. And he reminds Riddle that he does know him longer than most, and that he has always looked right through his façade. By calling him ‘Tom’ he reminds Riddle that he is still human after all, no matter how desperate Riddle tries to become something less human. Later of course people would become so afraid of the monster they became afraid of the name itself. Dumbledore refused to call Tom Riddle ‘Voldemort’ and later refused not to use the name ‘Voldemort’ when everybody else did. He does not give Riddle/Voldemort any kind of power over him. And then of course in book 7 Voldemort will use his name as a weapon, as he will trace down everyone brave enough to say his name.


  * Also, imagine little first-years calling their DADA teacher Professor Voldemort.


  * _“‘Three times at the last count, actually,’ said Dumbledore. ‘But the Ministry never attracted me as a career. Again, something we have in common, I think.’ Voldemort inclined his head, unsmiling, and took another sip of wine.”_ – Of course in book 7 Voldemort does infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, but he never becomes Minister of Magic, but rather uses a marionette to do his bidding. He could have gained power in a legal way, could have built up a terror regime as a Minister, but he was never interested in politics.


  * _“‘The old argument,’ he said softly. ‘But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.’ ‘Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,’ suggested Dumbledore.”_ – First of all Dumbledore and Riddle seemed to have a similar conversation before. Second Dumbledore here tells Riddle exactly what will be his downfall. First defeated by the sacrifice of a loving mother, later (and finally) by the boy who cared too much, who was protected and did protect others with a magic Voldemort never understood: love.


  * _“‘And what will become of those whom you command? What will happen to those who call themselves – or so rumour has it – the Death Eaters?’ Harry could tell that Voldemort had not expected Dumbledore to know this name; he saw Voldemort’s eyes flash red again and the slitlike nostrils flare. “_ – Dumbledore himself admits how little there is to know what Voldemort did between the years when he left school and the ten years later when he appeared at Hogwarts again. So how come Dumbledore knew about the Death Eaters? Had he already been suspicious of Riddle when he left school and tried to gather as much information about him as he could? Voldemort still tries to keep up the façade of a young charming man; nobody is supposed to know yet he is the leader of a secret cult. But Dumbledore is already three steps ahead. He must have known or suspected that Riddle would become someone dangerous.


  * _“‘No, nothing,’ said Dumbledore, and a great sadness filled his face. ‘The time is long gone when I could frighten you with a burning wardrobe and force you to make repayment for your crimes. But I wish I could, Tom … I wish I could …’”_ – Dumbledore was Riddle’s teacher, so in a way perhaps he saw him as his responsibility, and saw what had become of his student as his own failure.


  * _“‘Oh, he definitely wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts job,’ said Dumbledore. ‘The aftermath of our little meeting proved that. You see, we have never been able to keep a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for longer than a year since I refused the post to Lord Voldemort.’”_ – So, the job is cursed, we know of one teacher who died (Quirell) and others who got seriously hurt (Lockhart, Moody, Umbridge). It seems Lupin did get away the best. But with that knowledge it does seem a bit irresponsible to offer anyone the job. I wonder if Snape knows the job is cursed or had his suspicions. And maybe that was another reason Dumbledore refused so long to give him the job: he had tried to protect Snape.




	21. Chapter 21: The Unknowable Room

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 21: The Unknowable Room**

  * _“‘Don’t start, Hermione,’ said Harry. ‘If it hadn’t been for the Prince, Ron wouldn’t be sitting here now.’ ‘He would if you’d just listened to Snape in our first year,’ said Hermione dismissively.”_ – If you look close enough there are many hints that Snape is the Half-Blood-Prince. And one of the things Rowling is particular good at is writing [mystery](https://hufflly-puffs.tumblr.com/post/187574031817/harry-potter-how-jk-rowling-writes-mystery) . One of the differences to the previous books is that we are now aware of a secret identity. We never wondered about Mad-Eye Moody in book 4, because the character was new to us, so it was impossible to spot any odd behaviour for example. Now however one of the big mysteries is to reveal who the Half Blood Prince is. It would have been interesting if this book had been released chapter by chapter, if there had been a public discussion about the identity of the Prince. Instead I guess most people just binge-read the book, at least I did the first time, and I admit I did not give much thought to the Prince.


  * _“‘You’re going about it the wrong way,’ said Hermione. ‘Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can’t. It’s not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that –’”_ – Hermione, of course, is right, as usual. This isn’t a question of force or skill; Dumbledore would have known enough spells or potions to forcefully get the truth out of Slughorn. But for one thing it would be an immense abuse of trust and consent and secondly Slughorn is aware of that and prepared. What Dumbledore wants Harry to use is his Emotional Intelligence (yes, he has one). He is aware of the shame Slughorn feels, knows that Slughorn wants to redeem himself, and how close he was to Lily. Slughorn is not a bad person, but he does not do something simply because it is the right thing to do or for a greater good. His reasons to help Harry in the end are very personal.


  * _“[…]come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Room of Requirement on there!’ ‘Maybe the Marauders never knew the Room was there,’ said Ron. ‘I think it’ll be part of the magic of the Room,’ said Hermione. ‘If you need it to be unplottable, it will be.’”_ – I think both are right – the room becomes unplottable if you need it to be, but also the Marauders had never found out about it, because otherwise surely Sirius or Lupin would have mentioned the room to Harry. And I kind of like the idea that Harry had found out one of the many mysteries of Hogwarts his father was not aware of.


  * _“‘But I don’t think you will, Harry,’ said Hermione slowly. ‘Malfoy already knew exactly how we were using the Room, didn’t he, because that stupid Marietta had blabbed. He needed the Room to become the Headquarters of the DA, so it did. But you don’t know what the Room becomes when Malfoy goes in there, so you don’t know what to ask it to transform into.’”_ – I wonder if Harry had wished the room to be unplottable or if he had wished that others couldn’t get in. I don’t think he did because he had still figured out the magic of the room. But it is possible that Malfoy did. He needs the room to be unplottable and he needs a room that others can infiltrate. I do think there is some kind of magic at work that makes it impossible for Harry to enter the room while Malfoy is in it or to reveal the room to him, at least the way he tries to find it. He can’t enter whenever he needs to see the room Draco uses, however he later does in fact sees the room when he hides his potions book, but at the time he is not aware that he sees the same room Draco uses. The room still works for Harry, but it does not reveal Draco’s secret.


  * _“I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming secretly … I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming secretly …”_ – First the “ _Boy Who Scored_ ”, now this *shakeshead*.


  * _“‘Who were you expecting?’ said Ron, looking at her in the mirror. ‘Nobody,’ said Myrtle, picking moodily at a spot on her chin. ‘He said he’d come back and see me, but then you said you’d pop in and visit me, too …’ she gave Harry a reproachful look ‘… and I haven’t seen you for months and months. I’ve learned not to expect too much from boys.’”_ – Not to expect anything from boys is the best life lesson Myrtle could have ever learned (or in her case Life after Death lesson).


  * _“‘No,’ said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. ‘I mean he’s sensitive, people bully him, too, and he feels lonely and hasn’t got anybody to talk to, and he’s not afraid to show his feelings and cry!’ ‘There’s been a boy in here crying?’ said Harry curiously. ‘A young boy?’”_ – I neither like Harry and Ron making fun of Myrtle or the crying boy who visits her. And I find it odd that Harry assumes that the crying boy must be young, as if it somehow acceptable for young boys to cry but not boys his age. But it is also interesting what we learn about Draco here. He is bullied, despite the fact that he is a bully himself (which Myrtle is unaware of). He is lonely and has nobody to talk to, confirming something we might already suspect: Draco has no real friends. He has people like Crabbe and Goyle who fear him and do what they are told, but nothing more. He has nobody to turn to, nobody he can ask for help or confide in, making his situation even more desperate (and him therefore more dangerous).


  * _“‘I had a thought,’ said Harry tentatively. He felt strange about voicing it; this was much more Hermione’s territory than his. ‘You don’t think she can have been … you know … in love with Sirius?’ Hermione stared at him. ‘What on earth makes you say that?’ ‘I dunno,’ said Harry, shrugging, ‘but she was nearly crying when I mentioned his name … and her Patronus is a big four-legged thing now … I wondered whether it hadn’t become … you know … him.’”_ – So close and yet so wrong. Tonks is heartbroken because of a lost love, but it is not Sirius. She is worried about Lupin, so much she had even abandoned her post, to find out whether he is hurt or worse.




	22. Chapter 22: After the Burial

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 22: After the Burial**

  * It is a bit irresponsible from Hagrid to ask Harry, Ron and Hermione to attend Aragog’s funeral, knowing they are not supposed to leave the school after dark, and for good reasons, simply because he can’t face the funeral alone. We know Dumbledore is not around (he returns in the middle of the night, about the time Harry gets the memory), and it is possible nobody else knows about Aragog, but still. Don’t put children at risk for something like this.


  * _“Harry stared at them both. ‘Felix Felicis?’ he said. ‘I dunno … I was sort of saving it …’ ‘What for?’ demanded Ron incredulously. ‘What on earth is more important than this memory, Harry?’ asked Hermione. Harry did not answer. The thought of that little golden bottle had hovered on the edges of his imagination for some time; vague and unformulated plans that involved Ginny splitting up with Dean, and Ron somehow being happy to see her with a new boyfriend, had been fermenting in the depths of his brain, unacknowledged except during dreams or the twilight time between sleeping and waking …”_ – And here I thought he might be saving it for his battle against Voldemort (which he knows will come one day eventually), but no. He saved it so he might has a shot at Ginny. Ironically though the potion does help him on the matter, as the event of the evening will lead to Ginny splitting up with Dean.


  * _“‘He died?’ repeated Harry, shocked. ‘But surely werewolves don’t kill, they just turn you into one of them?’ ‘They sometimes kill,’ said Ron, who looked unusually grave now. ‘I’ve heard of it happening when the werewolf gets carried away.’”_ – Is this the rumour Tonks heard about? Was she worried Lupin was involved in it, that he had no control over himself or perhaps was forced to kill someone? And even if she knew it was Greyback who had killed the boy she knew how much it would upset Lupin.


  * _“Was it his imagination, or did Malfoy, like Tonks, look thinner? Certainly he looked paler; his skin still had that greyish tinge, probably because he so rarely saw daylight these days. But there was no air of smugness, or excitement, or superiority; none of the swagger that he had had on the Hogwarts Express, when he had boasted openly of the mission he had been given by Voldemort … there could be only one conclusion, in Harry’s opinion: the mission, whatever it was, was going badly.”_ – What irritates me is that despite Harry noticing how bad Malfoy looks he never pities him in any way. He knows or rather suspects Draco is up to something bad but never wonders why, or if he could be forced to do it. It is obvious that Draco is under much pressure. And yes he is not a good person, but still, Harry only starts to see him in a different light when it is too late to help him. Harry still categorizes people to be bad or good, with nothing in between, unlike Dumbledore, who saw the good in Snape, who will offer Draco help.


  * I think it is really interesting to see how Felix Felicis works. Harry acts on instinct rather than rational thought. He visits Hagrid based on the feeling that this is the place to be, without being able to explain why. It seems like the circumstances just mold perfectly around him, little coincidences that we would otherwise call lucky. And I guess all the things that happen that evening would have happen sooner or later anyway – Harry getting the memory, Ron and Lavender as well as Ginny and Dean splitting up etc, but the potion created the right circumstances for it.


  * _“Why he knew that going to Hagrid’s was the right thing to do, he had no idea. It was as though the potion was illuminating a few steps of the path at a time: he could not see the final destination, he could not see where Slughorn came in, but he knew that he was going the right way to get that memory.”_ – This might also work as a metaphor for life in general – you can’t always plan everything, especially not your entire life, just the things right in front of you and sometimes you have to trust that things will turn out for the better in the end.


  * Also, from a storytelling point of view the Felix Felicis potion works a bit like the Room of Requirement, that is as a Deus Ex Machina. A room that becomes whatever you need it to be, and a potion that instinctively tells you what to do. We do not question it, because it is magic, but you could criticize it as a rather lazy way of writing and getting your plot into the right direction.


  * It does not make Slughorn any more sympathetic that he only shows interest in Hagrid once he knows that Hagrid can get him valuable things (Acromantula-venom, Unicorn-hair etc). And again he brings alcohol, offering it to Harry, who is still underage.


  * _“‘Where are we burying him?’ he asked. ‘The Forest?’ ‘Blimey, no,’ said Hagrid, wiping his streaming eyes on the bottom of his shirt. ‘The other spiders won’ let me anywhere near their webs now Aragog’s gone. Turns out it was on’y on his orders they didn’ eat me! Can yeh believe that, Harry?’”_ – Oh Hagrid. He is still a bit naïve when it comes to creatures, always believing them to be misunderstood, underestimating their dangers, for himself and others.


  * The way to get Slughorn’s memory is to make him feel incredibly guilty ( _‘She gave me her life, but you won’t give me a memory’_ ) and then offer him a chance to redeem himself ( _‘You’d cancel out anything you did by giving me the memory. […] It would be a very brave and noble thing to do’_ ). Which is a very manipulative and Slytherin thing to do, just saying.




	23. Chapter 23: Horcruxes

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 23: Horcruxes**

  * _“‘Nonsense,’ said Slughorn briskly, ‘couldn’t be plainer you come from decent wizarding stock, abilities like yours. No, you’ll go far, Tom, I’ve never been wrong about a student yet.’”_ – When Slughorn had modified his memory there were two parts he had erased; the conversation about the Horcruxes obviously, but also this part. Slughorn telling the young Tom Riddle that he will become Minister of Magic and that he will achieve great things. Arguably Voldemort does become one of the greatest wizards, though in a way Slughorn could not have predicted. He also still believes that a talented wizard must come from a Wizard family; perhaps Lily was the first Muggleborn witch to prove him wrong and change his mind. Slughorn is not just ashamed for telling Riddle about the Horcruxes but also because he, as almost every other teacher at Hogwarts, was intrigued by the young man in front of him, too blind to see his real nature.


  * _“It was very well done, thought Harry, the hesitancy, the casual tone, the careful flattery, none of it overdone. He, Harry, had had too much experience of trying to wheedle information out of reluctant people not to recognise a master at work. He could tell that Riddle wanted the information very, very much; perhaps had been working towards this moment for weeks.”_ – No offence, but Harry is not very skilled at getting information out of people. I mean he knows how to get Hagrid to tell him what he wants, but Hagrid is kind of an easy target. And unlike Riddle Harry needed a potion to get information out of Slughorn.


  * _“‘Well, you split your soul, you see,’ said Slughorn, ‘and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one’s body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But, of course, existence in such a form …’ Slughorn’s face crumpled and Harry found himself remembering words he had heard nearly two years before. ‘I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost … but still, I was alive.’”-_ I mean you are still alive but at what price? Obviously Riddle had no problem with murdering other people or to rip his soul apart, but after the Killing Curse backfired it left him in a state of merely existing, depending on others to give him back his body, and it took 13 years to do so. And if Voldemort hates anything than it is to depend on others.


  * We learn that there is a spell to create a Horcrux, though Slughorn doesn’t know it (why would he?). Riddle obviously does find out about it at some point, but therefore the murder of his father and grandparents was not used to create a Horcrux, as he did not know how yet, and neither was the murder of Myrtle. Both the diary and Gaunt’s ring were souvenirs/reminders of the murders he had committed and became later Horcruxes, but not through the murders we associate them with. Therefore two additional murders had to happen to create those Horcruxes.


  * _“‘But all the same, Tom … keep it quiet, what I’ve told – that’s to say, what we’ve discussed. People wouldn’t like to think we’ve been chatting about Horcruxes. It’s a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know … Dumbledore’s particularly fierce about it …’”_ – I wonder how Slughorn came to know about Horcruxes, but perhaps it was simply academic curiosity, perhaps he is drawn to Dark magic as well, but from a complete theoretical point of view. He is aware however that knowing about such things and furthermore discussing them with a student would put him in a certain light. What is also interesting is that Dumbledore (who is not Headmaster yet) is very strict to keep the subject banned. Is this something he had discussed perhaps with Grindelwald? He seems to have a very personal interest in it.


  * Also, however guilty Slughorn feels for giving Riddle information about the Horcruxes, he is not responsible for what became of Riddle and the crimes he committed. If it had not been for Slughorn Riddle would have got the information he needed somewhere else; clearly he had already heard about it somewhere else before. And it is not like Slughorn told him how to create a Horcrux, Riddle found out about it somewhere else as well.


  * The other question is why Dumbledore needed that information. We know that he was already aware of the concept of Horcruxes and there aren’t many options to gain immortality in the Wizarding World, so the thought that Voldemort had created Horcruxes must have crossed his mind before. And even with the first modified memory it was confirmed that Riddle was curious about them. I think the only new information for Dumbledore is the number of Horcruxes Voldemort had created, crucial to know if one plans to kill Voldemort.


  * _“‘Then you told me, two years later, that on the night that Voldemort returned to his body, he made a most illuminating and alarming statement to his Death Eaters. “I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.” That was what you told me he said. “Further than anybody.” And I thought I knew what that meant, though the Death Eaters did not. He was referring to his Horcruxes, Horcruxes in the plural, Harry, which I do not believe any other wizard has ever had. Yet it fitted: Lord Voldemort had seemed to grow less human with the passing years, and the transformation he had undergone seemed to me to be only explicable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call usual evil …’”_ – It would make sense that the Death Eaters do not know about the Horcruxes, because Voldemort does not trust anybody, not even his followers, afraid they could turn against him. We do know that Regulus Black however found out about them and tried to destroy one Horcrux. Both Wormtail and Barty Crouch Jun. helped Voldemort to get back his body, so at the very least they had to wonder how he did not die. Other Death Eaters might have asked the same question after their master came back. But even if some of them suspected the same thing as Dumbledore, they do not know how many Horcruxes Voldemort created or which objects he had used, and none of them would dare to turn against Voldemort.


  * _“‘But firstly, no, Harry, not seven Horcruxes: six. The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body. That was the part of him that lived a spectral existence for so many years during his exile; without that, he has no self at all. That seventh piece of soul will be the last that anybody wishing to kill Voldemort must attack – the piece that lives in his body.’”_ – First of all, from a metaphysical point of view, it is interesting that something like a soul exists, that it is not just an abstract concept, but something every human owns, and furthermore something that can be corrupted and torn apart. Additionally there seems to be a connection between the body and the soul. Voldemort’s body changes the more Horcruxes he creates, he looks less and less human. But also his ‘original’ soul remains in his body, and Dumbledore describes it as Voldemort’s ‘self’. Interesting enough the diary-Horcrux had a personality of its own, it acted on its own, and shared knowledge with the other parts of Voldemort’s soul, because the 16-year-old Riddle did know what would happen to him in the future and knew who Harry was. Yet, the piece of soul in Voldemort’s body is his ‘self’, and the last part of him that needs to be destroyed. Otherwise the same thing would happen as the last time somebody attacked Voldemort’s body (the night the Killing Curse fired back) – the body would be destroyed but not the remaining soul.


  * _“I stumbled across the ring hidden in the ruin of the Gaunts’ house. It seems that once Voldemort had succeeded in sealing a piece of his soul inside it, he did not want to wear it any more.”_ – I wonder why though. Wouldn’t it be safer to keep his Horcruxes nearby? Perhaps he thought it would be more difficult to trace back all the places where he had hidden one of them, perhaps he had assumed in his arrogance that nobody would figure out all the places and objects he had chosen, maybe he had even thought he would feel it if one of them gets destroyed, though we know he does not. And he knows that by now as well, because the diary was destroyed and he did not feel it and only found out about it later.


  * _“Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies, and he preferred objects with a powerful magical history. His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve for himself a startling place in magical history; these things suggest to me that Voldemort would have chosen his Horcruxes with some care, favouring objects worthy of the honour.”_ – Imagine though he would have chosen the most trivial objects, hiding them in the most random places. But his own arrogance was his downfall in the end.


  * _“‘The snake?’ said Harry, startled. ‘You can use animals as Horcruxes?’ ‘Well, it is inadvisable to do so,’ said Dumbledore, ‘because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business. However, if my calculations are correct, Voldemort was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents’ house with the intention of killing you. ‘He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant deaths. You would certainly have been that. He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death. ‘As we know, he failed. After an interval of some years, however, he used Nagini to kill an old Muggle man, and it might then have occurred to him to turn her into his last Horcrux. She underlines the Slytherin connection, which enhances Lord Voldemort’s mystique. I think he is perhaps as fond of her as he can be of anything; he certainly likes to keep her close and he seems to have an unusual amount of control over her, even for a Parselmouth.’”_ – We do know a living thing that has been transformed into a Horcrux: Harry. Harry, who is very much his own person, and can’t be controlled by Voldemort, because it causes Voldemort pain. Of course the situation with Nagini might be different, because animals are easier to control. The other thing is that Dumbledore suspects that Voldemort had planned to use Harry’s death to create a final Horcrux. Therefore he must have used the spell before he had entered the Potter’s house, because after he was no longer able to do so. And it would explain why Harry became a Horcrux; Voldemort had used the spell, a murder had happened (his own murder) and Harry was the only living thing present. However the murder of Frank Bryce does not seem like something Voldemort had planned, so the only way to use it was to say the spell after the murder. Why would Voldemort have created a new Horcrux back then though, when he was already so weak? We know that Nagini is in fact a Horcrux but Dumbledore might be wrong when it happened; it makes more sense Voldemort did it after he had his body back.


  * _“Harry felt his heart lift. It was very good not to hear words of caution and protection for once. The headmasters and headmistresses around the walls seemed less impressed by Dumbledore’s decision; Harry saw a few of them shaking their heads and Phineas Nigellus actually snorted.”_ – I think Dumbledore’s decision to take Harry with him to destroy another Horcrux is based on the knowledge that Harry needs to know how, knowing that he himself has not much time to live left, given the curse of the ring. Dumbledore knows he can’t finish the job, so he gives Harry all the tools to do it instead.


  * _“‘Yes, I think so,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Without his Horcruxes, Voldemort will be a mortal man with a maimed and diminished soul. Never forget, though, that while his soul may be damaged beyond repair, his brain and his magical power remain intact. It will take uncommon skill and power to kill a wizard like Voldemort, even without his Horcruxes.’”_ – Or simply use “ _Expelliarmus_ ”, that will do the trick.


  * _“‘If Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, would it have been fulfilled? Would it have meant anything? Of course not! Do you think every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?’”_ – Considering this, can we still apply the concept of destiny to the Wizarding World? The prophecy about Voldemort and Harry was a self-fulfilling prophecy – it became true because Voldemort tried to prevent it. Many however are not even aware of a prophecy made about them, perhaps also because they are so vague nobody knows who they refer to. Even in the Wizarding World things are not set in stone; free will and choice still exist.


  * _“Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realise that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!”_ – Voldemort fears the people he oppresses as much as the people who follow him. All of his actions are based on fear, he creates fear in others, but he knows that one day this fear will turn to anger, that one day somebody will fight back, someone who is not afraid, not even of death, unlike him. The most dangerous people are those with nothing left to lose.


  * _“‘You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!’ said Dumbledore loudly. ‘The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort’s! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mirror that reflected your heart’s desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror? Voldemort should have known then what he was dealing with, but he did not!”_ – Harry’s weapon is his ability to love, his innocence, his purity. Despite the loss of his parents, the damage the Dursleys caused, despite losing Sirius, his heart, his soul remain pure. He is not broken, he did not become cruel, life has not hardened him. After Sirius’s death Harry had wished he could not feel a thing, but it is his ability to feel so intense, to care that much, that makes him unique. We saw the bitter man Snape turned into after his abusive childhood, after being bullied in school. The Dark Arts, the Death Eaters, seduced him; he had lost that innocence Harry still carries within himself. It is the hardest thing in the world to remain soft, loving and caring, despite our sufferings, and Harry is too young yet to understand how remarkable he is because of it.


  * _“But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew – and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents – that there was all the difference in the world.”_ – It is important that Harry does not act against Voldemort because he has to, because a prophecy told him he would, or because he knows Voldemort will never stop hunting him. He acts because it is the right thing to do, because he could not live with himself if he does not. And in the end it is very important that Harry’s choice to sacrifice himself is his own, that nobody forces him to do so. He dies the same way his mother did, to protect the people he loves, a love so deep Voldemort was never able to understand, becoming his downfall in the end.




	24. Chapter 24: Sectumsempra

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 24: Sectumsempra**

  * Can you already smell all the angsty Draco/Harry-fics based on this chapter?


  * _“‘Well, it was a bad night for romance all round. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry.’”_ – As I mentioned in the previous chapter notes all the things that happened under the influence of Felix Felicis were things that were meant to happen anyway, it just needed the right circumstances. Ron wanted to break up with Lavender for a while now, Hermione says Ginny and Dean had been rocky for ages and Harry always had the ability to persuade Slughorn. But while getting the memory from Slughorn and Ginny breaking up with her boyfriend are both things Harry wanted, I found it interesting that Harry’s luck lead to Ron and Hermione’s luck as well, because they are obviously meant to be. Perhaps something like real luck is the one you can share. Or maybe things are just better for Harry if his two best friends aren’t fighting.


  * Katie comes back from St. Mungos after months, having missed at least half a school year, and things just get back to business for her? Does she get private tutoring? I mean she is in her final year, how is she supposed to pass her N.E.W.T.s?


  * _“‘I think I’m going to take another swig of Felix,’ said Harry, ‘and have a go at the Room of Requirement again.’ ‘That would be a complete waste of potion,’ said Hermione flatly, putting down the copy of Spellman’s Syllabary she had just taken out of her bag. ‘Luck can only get you so far, Harry. The situation with Slughorn was different; you always had the ability to persuade him, you just needed to tweak the circumstances a bit. Luck isn’t enough to get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don’t go wasting the rest of that potion! You’ll need all the luck you can get if Dumbledore takes you along with him …’ She dropped her voice to a whisper.”_ – This exactly. Felix Felicis can alter the circumstances, create lucky coincidences, but nothing that was not meant to happen. If Ginny for example would be super with Dean, and had no interest whatsoever in Harry, nothing would have changed that. As Hermione said, luck can only get you so far.


  * _“All in all, the temptation to take another gulp of Felix Felicis was becoming stronger by the day, for surely this was a case for, as Hermione put it, ‘tweaking the circumstances’? The balmy days slid gently through May, and Ron seemed to be there at Harry’s shoulder every time he saw Ginny. Harry found himself longing for a stroke of luck that would somehow cause Ron to realise that nothing would make him happier than his best friend and his sister falling for each other and to leave them alone together for longer than a few seconds.”_ – So if Harry considers taking Felix Felicis to tweak the circumstances this must mean he is to a certain degree convinced that Ginny likes him back. Or maybe he hopes so, and knows that if this is the case the potion will help him to get closer to Ginny. If not it wasn’t meant to be.


  * _“‘No one can help me,’ said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking. ‘I can’t do it … I can’t … it won’t work … and unless I do it soon … he says he’ll kill me …’ And Harry realised, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that Malfoy was crying – actually crying – tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin.”_ – The thing that always irritates me is that Harry saw Draco crying, heard him saying Voldemort will kill him, and yet he never thinks for even a moment about offering his help. Sure, Draco attacks him seconds later, but Harry never wastes a moment to think about what he has witnessed. Draco is at his lowest, he has a breakdown, it is obvious that he is forced to do whatever he does and fears for his life. And while Harry feels guilty for using Sectumsempra on him that’s it. He never tries to talk to Draco, he never tells Dumbledore what he heard. And that is the big difference to Dumbledore, who knows exactly what task Voldemort has given Draco, and who does offer to help Draco in the end, an act of kindness Draco had not expected.


  * The moment Snape reads Harry’s mind he knows that Harry has his old potions book, perhaps he even suspected it the moment he saw Draco, recognizing the spell that had hurt him. Snape knows but he can’t say anything without revealing that he is the Half Blood Prince, and therefore the one who invented Sectumsempra, an obviously illegal very dangerous spell. He can’t accuse Harry without pointing in his own direction at the same time.


  * _“He felt stunned; it was as though a beloved pet had turned suddenly savage. What had the Prince been thinking to copy such a spell into his book? And what would happen when Snape saw it? Would he tell Slughorn – Harry’s stomach churned – how Harry had been achieving such good results in Potions all year? Would he confiscate or destroy the book that had taught Harry so much … the book that had become a kind of guide and friend? Harry could not let it happen … he could not …”_ – It doesn’t even cross Harry’s mind that the Prince had invented Sectumsempra himself, he assumes he had copied it from somewhere else (which would still be bad enough given what the spell does). And again I feel irritated that Harry’s biggest worry is that Slughorn could find out about the book or that Snape might destroy it. He still refuses to think bad about the Prince, despite the fact that he had almost killed someone because of him. (And obviously the blame is on Harry himself, because he should have known better than to use a spell whose result he doesn’t know)


  * _“[…]there were what looked like dragon-egg shells, corked bottles whose contents still shimmered evilly, several rusting swords and a heavy, blood-stained axe.”_ – Are those dragon-egg shells from Hagrid? And why the hell would there be a blood-stained axe hidden in a school? What the fuck had happened there?


  * _“He opened one of the cupboard’s creaking doors: it had already been used as a hiding place for something in a cage that had long-since died; its skeleton had five legs.”_ – Illegal pet or not, it is kind of cruel to just leave it in a cupboard to die (or perhaps it had already been dead and someone just needed a hiding place for the body? Again: Hagrid?).


  * _“Seizing the chipped bust of an ugly old warlock from on top of a nearby crate, he stood it on the cupboard where the book was now hidden, perched a dusty old wig and a tarnished tiara on the statue’s head to make it more distinctive, then sprinted back through the alleyways of hidden junk as fast as he could go, back to the door, back out on to the corridor, where he slammed the door behind him and it turned at once back into stone.”_ – Oh look, you just found a Horcrux. But did Voldemort really assume nobody would find Ravenclaw’s diadem? In a room generations of Hogwarts students have used before? That no Ravenclaw would recognize the thing for what it is?


  * _“‘I don’t believe this,’ said Hermione. ‘You’re actually defending –’ ‘I’m not defending what I did!’ said Harry quickly. ‘I wish I hadn’t done it, and not just because I’ve got about a dozen detentions. You know I wouldn’t’ve used a spell like that, not even on Malfoy, but you can’t blame the Prince, he hadn’t written “Try this out, it’s really good” – he was just making notes for himself, wasn’t he, not for anyone else …’”_ – And yet Harry feels much more sorry for himself, not being able to be at the final Quidditch match, than he spends thinking about what he did to Draco and feeling guilty about that.


  * _“It was, as Harry had anticipated, useless, boring work, punctuated (as Snape had clearly planned) with the regular jolt in the stomach that meant he had just read his father or Sirius’s names, usually coupled together in various petty misdeeds, occasionally accompanied by those of Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.”_ – There is a special kind of cruelty with this detention, reminding Harry again and again of the people he had lost. And Snape of course knows a thing or two about grief, he never got over losing Lily, and yet he forces Harry through this painful work.


  * And I still can’t believe that Harry needed Ron’s approval, best friend or not, to date Ginny, like it is up to Ron to decide who is good enough for his little sister.




	25. Chapter 25: The Seer Overheard

**Chapter 25: The Seer Overheard**

  * The thing about Harry and Ginny’s relationship is that we only see glimpse of it really. It is almost the end of the school year when they get together and then of course everything surrounding Dumbledore’s death happens and Harry is off to hunt Horcruxes. I think it was written like that on purpose. While Harry (and his friends) are starting to get interested in dating, a normal thing for teenagers, the series is not meant to be a romance. There are other YA fantasy novels where romance plays a much bigger role. For the same reason Hermione and Ron only ever get together towards the end of book 7; we never see them as a couple. The dynamic between Harry, Ron and Hermione is therefore never changed, and to be honest it would have been odd to see Hermione and Ron as a couple or Ginny accompany them on their Horcrux hunt. The Harry/Ron/Hermione-friendship is the core relationship of the book, and while this dynamic will change eventually we don’t get to see it.


  * _“‘Watch it,’ he said, pointing warningly at Harry and Ginny. ‘Just because I’ve given my permission doesn’t mean I can’t withdraw it –’ ‘“Your permission”,’ scoffed Ginny. ‘Since when did you give me permission to do anything? Anyway, you said yourself you’d rather it was Harry than Michael or Dean.’” –_ Still don’t know what is worse, that Ron thinks he somehow owes his sisters and can decide who she dates or not, or that Harry needed that permission, that he needed to make sure Ron was okay with him dating his little sister.


  * _“On one such evening, when Ginny had retired to the library and Harry was sitting beside the window in the common room, supposedly finishing his Herbology homework but in reality reliving a particularly happy hour he had spent down by the lake with Ginny at lunchtime, Hermione dropped into the seat between him and Ron with an unpleasantly purposeful look on her face.”_ – So what does a particular happy hour actually mean? Obviously the books remain sex-free, another reason why we never see much of Harry’s relationship with Ginny, because surely at some point they would have had sex (and we can only speculate whether they did the do before or after the war).


  * _“‘Listen, Hermione, I can tell it’s not a girl. I can just tell.’ ‘The truth is that you don’t think a girl would have been clever enough,’ said Hermione angrily. ‘How can I have hung round with you for five years and not think girls are clever?’ said Harry, stung by this. ‘It’s the way he writes. I just know the Prince was a bloke, I can tell. This girl hasn’t got anything to do with it. Where did you get this, anyway?’”_ – Obviously Harry does not think girls can’t be clever but his remarks are still sexist. There is nothing whatsoever that suggests that the original owner of the potion book couldn’t have been a girl; you can’t tell someone’s gender based on their writing. And it is some sort of casual sexism that Harry at times shows, Ron a bit more, both of them unaware, because privilege works that way, and to the utter annoyance of Hermione.


  * _“‘But he healed all right, didn’t he? Back on his feet in no time.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Harry; this was perfectly true, although his conscience squirmed slightly all the same. ‘Thanks to Snape …’ ‘You still got detention with Snape this Saturday?’ Ron continued. ‘Yeah, and the Saturday after that, and the Saturday after that,’ sighed Harry. ‘And he’s hinting now that if I don’t get all the boxes done by the end of term, we’ll carry on next year.’”_ – First of all just because Draco healed all right and there is seemingly no permanent damage left it does not make what Harry did okay or less dangerous. Draco could have died and I think Harry ignores the reality of that. Second, the good part of Snape killing Dumbledore and Harry not returning to Hogwarts is that he will have no more detention with Snape, so yeah I guess.


  * _“He was finding these detentions particularly irksome because they cut into the already limited time he could have been spending with Ginny. Indeed, he had frequently wondered lately whether Snape did not know this, for he was keeping Harry later and later every time, while making pointed asides about Harry having to miss the good weather and the varied opportunities it offered.”_ – I think it is the opposite actually; Snape does know this, because everybody knows that Harry is dating Ginny now, so he cuts the already limited free time Harry has as much as possible, for Snape knows Harry would rather spend it with Ginny.


  * _“‘Professor, were you trying to get into the Room of Requirement?’ ‘… omens I have been vouchsafed – what?’ She looked suddenly shifty. ‘The Room of Requirement,’ repeated Harry. ‘Were you trying to get in there?’ ‘I – well – I didn’t know students knew about –’ ‘Not all of them do,’ said Harry.”_ – So Trelawney used the same room as Harry did when he needed a place to hide his potions book, the same room Draco is using right now, a room full with hidden objects, and she never assumed students would know about it? Did she really think all the objects in the room where either from other teachers or house-elves? The same way Voldemort did not consider others could get in the room where he had hidden one of his Horcruxes.


  * Trelawney got in the room, despite Draco being in it already, so the only reason Harry could not get in the room was because he had thought the wrong thing; whenever he wished to see the room Draco used part of the magic of the room would work against him. Draco probably explicitly wished that nobody could find out what he was doing like that. However the room is still there if you wish for it in other ways. If you only wish for a room to hide something, not the room where Draco hides something, the magic of the room works perfectly well.


  * _“‘And you didn’t see that coming?’ said Harry, unable to help himself. ‘No, I did not, as I say, it was pitch –’ She stopped and glared at him suspiciously.”_ – One for you, Harry, one for you.


  * _“‘Again and again, no matter how I lay them out –’ And she pulled a card dramatically from underneath her shawls. ‘– the lightning-struck tower,’ she whispered. ‘Calamity. Disaster. Coming nearer all the time …’”_ – By now we know that a lot of Trelawney’s predictions do come true, not only those she does in trance. Of course she always predicts that something catastrophic will happen and what she says is still very vague. The lightning struck tower however will come very true – the Astronomy tower, struck by the lighting of the Dark Mark.


  * _“‘Professor Snape made a terrible mistake. He was still in Lord Voldemort’s employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney’s prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply. But he did not know – he had no possible way of knowing – which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onwards, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father –’”_ – Here is the thing though: it doesn’t really matter which boy Voldemort chose to kill. If he had chosen Neville there would be still blood on Snape’s hand. In a cruel twist of fate Voldemort killed the man Snape hated and the woman he loved. But the fact remains the same that in the moment Snape told Voldemort about the prophecy he sentenced an innocent family to death. Because Snape was smart enough to predict what Voldemort would do next, that he would try to kill the boy who would be his downfall. And Snape did not care; the only reason he did was when he learned that Voldemort was after Lily, and even then he cared more about her life than that of her son.


  * _“Dumbledore did not speak for a moment; he looked as though he was trying to make up his mind about something. At last he said, ‘I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely.’”_ – Harry now only knows half the truth, and that in itself is a very dangerous thing. He knows which role Snape played in his parent’s death, but he does not know why Snape changed sides, what the reason is that Dumbledore trusts him that much. He only reveals his love for Lily in the moment of his death, as if he is ashamed of it, as if it is his greatest weakness. Nobody in the Order knew about it, they all trusted Dumbledore’s judgement. For Dumbledore’s plan to work the world needed to believe Snape was a Death Eater after all, that he had betrayed Dumbledore, not Voldemort. It is clear that Dumbledore never wanted Harry to know it was Snape who had overheard the prophecy, or at least not now. Maybe Dumbledore thought that Harry deserved to know the truth, but in the end it was Snape’s choice if and when he would share his secret.




	26. Chapter 26: The Cave

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 26: The Cave**

  * _“And with the sudden agility of a much younger man, Dumbledore slid from the boulder, landed in the sea and began to swim, with a perfect breaststroke, towards the dark slit in the rock face, his lit wand held in his teeth.”_ – I don’t know why this image is so funny to me, but I need fan art of this moment asap.


  * _“‘Here,’ he said. ‘We go on through here. The entrance is concealed.’ Harry did not ask how Dumbledore knew. He had never seen a wizard work things out like this, simply by looking and touching; but Harry had long since learned that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of ineptitude than expertise.”_ – Not only does magic leaves traces, wizards like Dumbledore can feel it. Harry of course has spent most of his life either at places without any magic (Privet Drive) or places full of magic (Hogwarts, the Burrow, Grimmauld Place etc), so perhaps it is much more difficult for him to detect the traces magic leaves behind, for he only knows the complete absence or is overwhelmed by it.


  * _“Dumbledore stepped back from the cave wall and pointed his wand at the rock. For a moment, an arched outline appeared there, blazing white as though there was a powerful light behind the crack.”_ – Both the hidden door and later the lake full of bodies are references to the Lord of the Rings, respectively the Doors of Durin and the Dead Marshes. Of course you only have to solve a riddle and not give your blood to enter the Doors of Durin. And later in book 7 we have another pretty obvious reference to Tolkien’s work: while Ron, Hermione and Harry each wear Slytherin’s locket (still a Horcrux then) it changes their personality to something much more sinister, the same way the One Ring influences Frodo (and has influenced Gollum) to become someone else. There might be other references that I missed, because I’m not an expert when it comes to Lord of the Rings.


  * _“‘I said it was crude,’ said Dumbledore, who sounded disdainful, even disappointed, as though Voldemort had fallen short of the standards Dumbledore expected. ‘The idea, as I am sure you will have gathered, is that your enemy must weaken him or herself to enter. Once again, Lord Voldemort fails to grasp that there are much more terrible things than physical injury.’”_ – The thing however is that if you are a wizard you can simply heal yourself afterwards, so you are not weakened at all. It is not just crude but rather pointless.


  * _“‘You are very kind, Harry,’ said Dumbledore, now passing the tip of his wand over the deep cut he had made in his own arm, so that it healed instantly, just as Snape had healed Malfoy’s wounds. ‘But your blood is worth more than mine. Ah, that seems to have done the trick, doesn’t it?’”_ – Of course Harry’s blood had a particular value to Voldemort because he needed the protection in it (given through Lily’s sacrifice) in order to recreate himself and to be able to touch Harry. But I don’t think that in this case it would have actually mattered whose blood they used; I doubt the door could recognize the donor.


  * I have to admit that the image of the cave, the almost complete darkness and the bodies in the lake is deeply unsettling. Well done.


  * Also, after Harry suggest to use a Summoning Charm to get the Horcrux Dumbledore does not dismiss his idea but instead let him try it out, even though he knew it would not be as easy as that. But he encourages Harry and let him take action; I can only image he was the same as a teacher, never dismissing anyone’s ideas but supporting them instead, the way Lupin did.


  * _“‘How did you know that was there?’ Harry asked in astonishment. ‘Magic always leaves traces,’ said Dumbledore, as the boat hit the bank with a gentle bump, ‘sometimes very distinctive traces. I taught Tom Riddle. I know his style.’”_ – So not only does Dumbledore recognizes traces of magic but also who performed the magic in this case. That it was Tom Riddle is kinda obvious, but I like the idea of wizards leaving behind magical fingerprints, something that you can clearly trace back to their owner. Then again perhaps only as highly gifted wizards as Dumbledore are able to do this. We know that while the Ministry can recognizes where magic has been used there are often unable to tell who did it; they had accused Harry to use magic in his holidays when it had been Dobby instead. And they need tools like Priori Incantatem to figure out who has performed a certain spell.


  * _“‘Voldemort will not have cared about the weight, but about the amount of magical power that crossed his lake. I rather think an enchantment will have been placed upon this boat so that only one wizard at a time will be able to sail in it.’ ‘But then –?’ ‘I do not think you will count, Harry: you are under age and unqualified. Voldemort would never have expected a sixteen-year-old to reach this place: I think it unlikely that your powers will register compared to mine.’”_ – It will be of course Voldemort’s downfall that he underestimates practically everyone. Harry does not register because he is too young. According to Rowling’s drawing of the Black family tree Regulus was 18 when he died, so he did register as a wizard, but Kreacher of course did not. It simply did not cross Voldemort’s mind that two people/beings could travel to this place, or that his protection would not work on House Elves and the likes.


  * I wonder who the bodies in the lake are, if perhaps Dumbledore would recognize some of Voldemort’s victims who would have found their final resting place here, their bodies abused to protect a part of the soul of their killer.


  * _“‘There is nothing to be feared from a body, Harry, any more than there is anything to be feared from the darkness. Lord Voldemort, who of course secretly fears both, disagrees. But once again he reveals his own lack of wisdom. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.’”_ – Perhaps the best way to face a fear is to educate yourself about it; once it is demystified it can no longer scares us.


  * _“‘Yes,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I am sure that once we take the Horcrux, we shall find them less peaceable. However, like many creatures that dwell in cold and darkness, they fear light and warmth, which we shall therefore call to our aid should the need arise. Fire, Harry,’ Dumbledore added with a smile, in response to Harry’s bewildered expression.”_ – It is the Devil’s Snare all over again, isn’t it?


  * _“‘I’m sorry, Harry; I should have said, he would not want immediately to kill the person who reached this island,’ Dumbledore corrected himself. ‘He would want to keep them alive long enough to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defences and, most importantly of all, why they were so intent upon emptying the basin. Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes that he alone knows about his Horcruxes.’”_ – This sounds like Voldemort has some sort of alarm system, that he would know if somebody would enter the cave or start drinking the poison, but we know this is not the case. Regulus and Kreacher had been where Harry and Dumbledore are now, they took the Horcrux and Voldemort never found out about it. Also the way the poison works the drinker would be incredibly thirsty sooner or later, reaching for the water in the lake, and then getting dragged down by the Inferi. The poison is meant to kill, though not directly.


  * _“‘Why can’t I drink the potion instead?’ asked Harry desperately. ‘Because I am much older, much cleverer, and much less valuable,’ said Dumbledore.”_ – Of course Harry’s value is that he alone can defeat Voldemort, but still it is very problematic to decide that one life has more value than another, especially knowing Dumbledore refers to Harry’s strategic value. At the moment Harry’s life has more value, because it is not the right moment for him to die yet.


  * _“Dumbledore began to cower as though invisible torturers surrounded him; his flailing hand almost knocked the refilled goblet from Harry’s trembling hands as he moaned, ‘Don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them, please, please, it’s my fault, hurt me instead …’”_ – I wonder what it was that Dumbledore saw here; either his worst memory (the death of his sister) or his biggest fear (people dying for him, the same fear Harry has). Dumbledore said earlier that Voldemort does not know that there are worse things than physical pain, but this proves that he does. This is psychological torture.


  * Also, more terrifying than everything else (the darkness, the bodies) is the horror Harry feels when he witnesses what the poison does to Dumbledore, when he sees the pain Dumbledore feels and is forced to keep him drinking.


  * _“‘I am not worried, Harry,’ said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. ‘I am with you.’”_ – There is something quite scaring in this role reversal; the protector becomes the one who needs protection. Dumbledore places his trust in Harry, he knows his time is limited, he knows that Harry has to finish what they both have started, there is no more time to teach him. And it puts an almost unbearable weight on Harry’s shoulders.




	27. Chapter 27: The Lightning-Struck Tower

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 27: The Lightning-Struck Tower**

  * This chapter contains perhaps my favourite Draco moment; I lost count how many times I have read the dialogue between Draco and Dumbledore. I think that this is the most closet look we get on who Draco really is, the most honest and genuine version of him. Of course even now he still tries to play a role, but Dumbledore sees right through him and for a moment Draco lets his mask fall. This is where my view on Draco changed. I was never particular interested in his character before book 6 because he was nothing more than a bully. Book 6, and especially his conversation with Dumbledore helped to make him a much more rounded, complex character, that I would have liked to see more of in the final book. And it is not just my view that changed, after this evening Harry saw Draco in a different light as well.


  * _“How long had they been away? Had Ron, Hermione and Ginny’s luck run out by now? Was it one of them who had caused the Mark to be set over the school, or was it Neville, or Luna, or some other member of the DA? And if it was … he was the one who had told them to patrol the corridors, he had asked them to leave the safety of their beds … would he be responsible, again, for the death of a friend?”_ – Survivor’s guilt at its best. And of course after the events of this evening Harry will feel responsible for Dumbledore’s death as well, just as he had felt guilty for Sirius’s death, ignoring that both men (and his parents as well) were completely aware of the danger they put themselves into while fighting Voldemort, always knowing they might die. They all tried to protect Harry, but they didn’t gave their life for him, but because they believed in something bigger, because they wanted to do the right thing.


  * _“Then, by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore’s wand flying in an arc over the edge of the ramparts and understood … Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilised Harry, and the second he had taken to perform the spell had cost him the chance of defending himself.”_ – Dumbledore knows that Harry would never just stand by without taking action. He knows that the only way to keep him safe, to keep him hidden, is to immobilise him, to force him to silently watch. And that in itself is yet another nightmare: to be trapped in your own body, forced to watch Death Eaters infiltrate the school, forced to watch Dumbledore die.


  * _“Malfoy stepped forwards, glancing around quickly to check that he and Dumbledore were alone. His eyes fell upon the second broom. ‘Who else is here?’”_ – We know that Draco was communicating with Madame Rosmerta. She told him Dumbledore left the school (though seemingly alone) and she probably told him about his return, though the question is if she also told him that Harry was with Dumbledore. Perhaps Draco assumes that Harry has already left the tower to get help, despite knowing that Harry owns the Invisibility Cloak. But then Draco knows Harry well enough to know that he would never just stand by, invisible or not. What he does not calculate is that Dumbledore is not as defenceless as he seems, but used the moment when Draco attacked to protect somebody else instead of defending himself. Dumbledore immediately distracts Draco with a counterquestion, again to keep Harry safe. None of the other Death Eaters seems to notice or care about the second broom, though I’m pretty sure that Snape knows/suspects enough to figure out the situation.


  * _“‘Draco, Draco, you are not a killer.’ […]I don’t think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe … […]” –_ Draco is not a good person. His actions almost resulted in the deaths of Katie Bell and Ron, foreseeable casualties given how reckless his plans to kill Dumbledore became. Just this night he let Death Eaters into this school, despite knowing that those people show no mercy and will kill teachers as students alike. But he is also not an evil person either. Dumbledore openly wonders if Draco’s heart had been really in the task he had been given (killing Dumbledore) and Draco makes clear that he had no idea Fenrir Greyback would be among the Death Eaters as well and how repulsive the idea of Greyback at Hogwarts is to him. Dumbledore sees Draco for who he is: a terrified 16 year old boy, put under an unbearable pressure, afraid that Voldemort would kill him as well as his family if he does not succeed. Draco is yet another victim of Voldemort. Yes he chose to become a Death Eater, but then again was it really a choice? Did he really have other options? Refusing Voldemort would have been his death sentence. I don’t want to excuse what Draco did or justify his actions, but people are more complex than just good or evil. Dumbledore knows that better than anyone else, so he does the only right thing now: he offers Draco his help.


  * _“‘Enchanted coins,’ said Malfoy, as though he was compelled to keep talking, though his wand hand was shaking badly. ‘I had one and she had the other and I could send her messages –’ ‘Isn’t that the secret method of communication the group that called themselves Dumbledore’s Army used last year?’ asked Dumbledore.”_ – Hermione, who came up with the idea of the Enchanted Coins, was inspired by the Dark Mark, which Voldemort uses to summon his followers. Now the method is used by Draco. He also used Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, which was meant to protect, in order to attack and infiltrate. Magic and magical objects are neither good or evil, they can work either way, depending on the person who uses them and their intention.


  * Madame Rosmerta told Draco that Dumbledore went out for a drink, so he decided to use a trap (the Dark Mark) to lure Dumbledore back to school. It was really a coincidence then that Dumbledore and Harry would return from the cave shortly after the Mark had been cast.


  * _“‘I haven’t got any options!’ said Malfoy, and he was suddenly as white as Dumbledore. ‘I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me! He’ll kill my whole family!’ ‘I appreciate the difficulty of your position,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realised that I suspected you.’”_ – Dumbledore must have been in an incredible dilemma all year. He knew that if he talked to Draco or even stopped him it would have been a death sentence for both Draco and his family. But the more desperate Draco got the more dangerous he became, putting other students with his actions at risk. And now, with the arrival of Death Eaters at Hogwarts, it is again not just Dumbledore’s life that is at risk.


  * _“‘But I got this far, didn’t I?’ he said slowly. ‘They thought I’d die in the attempt, but I’m here … and you’re in my power … I’m the one with the wand … you’re at my mercy …’ ‘No, Draco,’ said Dumbledore quietly. ‘It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now.’ Malfoy did not speak. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling. Harry thought he saw it drop by a fraction –“_ – I don’t think Draco could have ever imagined that Dumbledore would offer him help. He suspected Snape’s attempts to help him as a way to steal his glory. Draco is not used that people (apart from his parents) genuinely care about him. He had always looked down on Dumbledore, never showed any kind of respect for him. And yet Dumbledore, despite the things Draco had done, offers him help. Dumbledore still sees him as an innocent, as someone who deserves his mercy. Despite the fact that Harry saw Draco crying, saw the pressure he is under, he never thought that way. Dumbledore’s view on Draco is what changes Harry’s view on Draco. And finally the one small moment where it seems like Draco was about to drop his wand. I have often wondered how this story would have changed if Draco had changed sides. In book 7 it is clear that he no longer wants to be a Death Eater, but he does not work actively against Voldemort either, paralyzed by his own fear, forever stuck.


  * _“‘Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little,’ said Dumbledore. ‘And, yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live …’ ‘I didn’t,’ breathed Malfoy. He was not looking at Greyback; he did not seem to want to even glance at him. ‘I didn’t know he was going to come –’”_ – First of all Draco does not have any friends, but that is beside the point. What is important is that he talks to Dumbledore here, that despite his fear he wants to make clear that he had no idea Greyback would come. He wants to confirm the image Dumbledore has of him: that he is not a killer, that he is still an innocent after all.


  * _“‘Severus …’ The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading. […]Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face. ‘Severus … please …’ Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. ‘Avada Kedavra!’”_ – I wonder how much of this was planned. We know that Dumbledore’s time was already limited, that the curse of the Horcrux-ring would slowly kill him. We also know that Draco had been given the task to kill Dumbledore and that it was very unlikely he would be able to do it. And on top of that is the Unbreakable Vow Snape made with Narcissa, forcing him to complete the task should Draco fail. So Dumbledore knew he would die, knew what Draco was up to, and knew about the Vow Snape had made. So it was clear that at some point Snape would have to kill Dumbledore in order to keep his cover, and his life and Draco safe. The question was just when. It is possible that Snape read Dumbledore’s mind, or perhaps he simply knew. But there is also the revulsion and hate in Snape’s face. This is not a mercy kill, but I think because this is not how the Avada Kedrava Curse works. Unforgiveable Curses need intent; you have to mean them. Which is why Draco could have never killed Dumbledore. But I think a part of Snape had hated Dumbledore enough in order to do it and I think Dumbledore was aware of that.




	28. Chapter 28: Flight of the Prince

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 28: Flight of the Prince**

  * Wait, is that chapter title already a spoiler about the identity of the Half-Blood Prince? I mean who else would be on the run other than Snape? Though I admit that the first time I read this chapter I was simply too shocked about what had just happened to give the chapter title much thought.


  * _“Terror tore at Harry’s heart … he had to get to Dumbledore and he had to catch Snape … somehow the two things were linked … he could reverse what had happened if he had them both together … Dumbledore could not have died …”_ – Dumbledore has become an almost God-like figure and it is unthinkable that he could ever die, that he could ever be that vulnerable. In the end Dumbledore chose his death, he died under his own conditions, as much as that is possible. But there is always this feeling that as long as Dumbledore is around everything is safe. The idea of Hogwarts as the safest place on earth is very much tied to Dumbledore. Without him the last refuge is gone.


  * _“And now he saw the vast outline of Hagrid, illuminated by the light of the crescent moon revealed suddenly from behind clouds; the blond Death Eater was aiming curse after curse at the gamekeeper, but Hagrid’s immense strength, and the toughened skin he had inherited from his giantess mother, seemed to be protecting him;”_ – I like the fact that Hagrid has his very own superpower. He is probably not immune to all curses, but as it seems to a lot, probably including some nasty ones, because after all a Death Eater is using them.


  * _“[… ]Harry rolled over and scrambled back up again as the huge Death Eater behind him yelled, ‘Incendio!’; Harry heard an explosive bang and a dancing orange light spilled over all of them: Hagrid’s house was on fire. ‘Fang’s in there, yeh evil –!’ Hagrid bellowed.”_ – From all the evil things the Death Eaters did that evening almost killing Fang is definitely the worst. Golden rule: don’t kill the dog.


  * _“But before he could finish this jinx, excruciating pain hit Harry; he keeled over in the grass, someone was screaming, he would surely die of this agony, Snape was going to torture him to death or madness – ‘No!’ roared Snape’s voice and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had started; Harry lay curled on the dark grass, clutching his wand and panting; somewhere above him Snape was shouting, ‘Have you forgotten our orders? Potter belongs to the Dark Lord – we are to leave him! Go! Go!’”_ – Earlier, when Harry ran past the Order and the DA fighting Death Eaters, it is described that some green light nearly hit him, so someone was throwing a Death Curse at him. But by the sound of it though the curse that hit Harry here (while fighting Snape) seems like the Cruciatus Curse, and while it makes sense that Voldemort wants to kill Harry himself, I don’t think he would mind if his followers torture Harry. If anything the scene reminds me of a scene in book 7, where Draco tells Crabbe (or Goyle?) not to kill Harry either, claiming as well that Harry belongs to Voldemort. And both times I wondered if Snape and Draco secretly wanted to protect Harry.


  * _“‘Kill me, then,’ panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. ‘Kill me like you killed him, you coward –’ ‘DON’T –’ screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them, ‘– CALL ME COWARD!’”_ – Flash forward 20 years later and Harry telling his son he was named after the two bravest men he had known, one of them Severus Snape. But it is obvious how incredible hurt Snape is by being called a coward. Because that is who he was when he started following Voldemort, a weak man, looking for a leader. And his weakness, his cowardice resulted in Lily’s death. And then he risked everything, still is, as a double agent, always in mortal danger, to redeem himself, to help Harry survive, so Lily’s sacrifice was not in vain. And he has to shut himself and his feelings completely down, he can’t afford to feel, for his feelings would betray him. I will never be a huge fan of Snape, because I think his change was based on the wrong reasons, but there is no denying that he was indeed very brave.


  * _“‘What musta happened was, Dumbledore musta told Snape ter go with them Death Eaters,’ Hagrid said confidently. ‘I suppose he’s gotta keep his cover. Look, let’s get yeh back up ter the school. Come on, Harry …’”_ – I don’t think Hagrid and Snape ever had much of a relationship with each other. But Hagrid is loyal to Dumbledore. His trust in Snape is based on Dumbledore’s trust in Snape. And it is not just him. Most members of the Order feel the same way. They don’t particular like Snape but they believed in Dumbledore’s judgement of Snape’s character.


  * _“Harry had known there was no hope from the moment that the Body-Bind Curse Dumbledore had placed upon him lifted, known that it could have happened only because its caster was dead; but there was still no preparation for seeing him here, spread-eagled, broken: the greatest wizard Harry had ever, or would ever, meet.”_ – Even Dumbledore, who had always been bigger than life, who was always untouchable, became human again in his death. Even he could die.




	29. Chapter 29: The Phoenix Lament

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 29: The Phoenix Lament**

  * _“And a Death Eater’s dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse the huge blond one was firing off everywhere – Harry, if we hadn’t had your Felix potion, I think we’d all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us –’”-_ We know using Felix Felicis is illegal if you enter a competition and that you should not use it too often, but this made me wonder if it wouldn’t be useful for Aurors to use the potion if they are facing particular dangerous situations? But also, what if the other side would have used Felix Felicis as well? Luck is not biased, it can not decide between good or bad. If the Death Eaters had used the potion the luck would have been on their side. Given that the potion helped Ginny and the others staying alive shows how powerful it really is, so perhaps it should be banned completely, because it can be abused as well.


  * _“‘I’d love to know what Snape told him to convince him,’ said Tonks. ‘I know,’ said Harry, and they all turned to stare at him. ‘Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn’t realised what he was doing, he was really sorry he’d done it, sorry that they were dead.’ ‘And Dumbledore believed that?’ said Lupin incredulously. ‘Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James …’ ‘And he didn’t think my mother was worth a damn, either,’ said Harry, ‘because she was Muggle-born … “Mudblood”, he called her …’”_ – And this shows how dangerous it can be if you only know half the truth. Even Lupin, who knows that Lily and Snape had been friends as children, doubts Snape’s motive. The only encounter between his mother and Snape Harry is aware of is the memory of him calling her ‘Mudblood’. He doesn’t know their history and the circumstances, but it fits into everything else Harry knows about Snape: that as a Death Eater he would obviously despise Muggleborn witches and wizards. To Lupin the situation reads the same; we later learn that Lily broke off her friendship with Snape after this incident and perhaps even she was not aware of the fact that Snape never stopped loving her. The only people who did know were Dumbledore and Voldemort, though the later never understood love and the things people are willing to risk for it. Dumbledore took Snape’s secret to the grave and Harry only knows half of the story, leaving out the important bit, the real reason why Dumbledore had trusted Snape.


  * _“As Professor McGonagall nodded, Harry felt Ginny move beside him and looked at her. Her slightly narrowed eyes were fixed upon Fleur, who was gazing down at Bill with a frozen expression on her face. […]‘You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per’aps, you ’oped?’ said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. ‘What do I care how ’e looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave! And I shall do zat!’ she added fiercely, pushing Mrs Weasley aside and snatching the ointment from her.”_ – Both Ginny and Mrs Weasley suspect that now that Bill is injured, that he is no longer as handsome as he used to be and there might be some other after-effects of the wolf-bite, Fleur is no longer interested in him and will leave him. And of course Fleur’s initial reaction is shock. But it turns out she is less superficial than they thought. Yes, Bill is/was handsome and of course there was a physical attraction between them, but it does not mean they don’t love each other genuinely. Fleur could possibly have any man she wants, so there must be something about Bill that she wants to spend the rest of her life with him, something that goes deeper than attraction. For better or for worse indeed.


  * _“And the meaning of Tonks’s Patronus and her mouse-coloured hair, and the reason she had come running to find Dumbledore when she had heard a rumour someone had been attacked by Greyback, all suddenly became clear to Harry; it had not been Sirius that Tonks had fallen in love with after all …”_ – I still think it is quite interesting how Tonks’s heartbreak manifests. It is so profound that Harry mistook it for grief. It changed Tonks’s hair, so that it took the same colour as Lupin’s, her Patronus changed into a wolf, in a way she became Lupin, who had always been on her mind.


  * _“‘I am not being ridiculous,’ said Lupin steadily. ‘Tonks deserves somebody young and whole.’ ‘But she wants you,’ said Mr Weasley, with a small smile. ‘And after all, Remus, young and whole men do not necessarily remain so.’ He gestured sadly at his son, lying between them.”_ – There is something so genuine about both Fleur and Tonks expressing their love, showing that it is the person you fall in love with, not the body.


  * _“And a new portrait had joined the ranks of the dead headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts … Dumbledore was slumbering in a golden frame over the desk, his half-moon spectacles perched upon his crooked nose, looking peaceful and untroubled.”_ – Does that happen automatically the moment a headmaster dies? I mean doesn’t anybody have to paint the picture first? Or maybe they do this beforehand and the portrait only becomes alive when the subject of it dies? Like it feels weird that on the one hand Dumbledore is gone and yet he is still in a way here, like Harry could wait for him to wake up and ask him for advice, no biggie.


  * _“‘Harry,’ she said, ‘I would like to know what you and Professor Dumbledore were doing this evening when you left the school.’ ‘I can’t tell you that, Professor,’ said Harry. He had expected the question and had his answer ready. It had been here, in this very room, that Dumbledore had told him that he was to confide the contents of their lessons to nobody but Ron and Hermione.”_ – I think I wondered briefly why Dumbledore would be that secretively, that perhaps it would be better to find the remaining Horcruxes if for example Aurors would look for them, not three teenagers, who are not even fully educated yet. But I think the reason is that the less people are involved the less likely is the chance Voldemort knows what they are up to. Voldemort of course infiltrates the Ministry and perhaps he even had spies at the Order (apart from Snape). And obviously Harry and his friends are the last people Voldemort would suspect to have find out about his secret and who are off to destroy him. Vanity has always been one of his weaknesses.


  * _“‘I want to talk about what happens to Hogwarts before he gets here,’ she said quickly. ‘Personally, I am not convinced that the school should reopen next year. The death of the Headmaster at the hands of one of our colleagues is a terrible stain upon Hogwarts’ history. It is horrible.’”_ – We know that Hogwarts will reopen, though with a few changes. But if it hadn’t what would have happened to all the students? Would they have gone to a different school? Stayed at home? Hogwarts had always been a safe harbour, especially now that the Wizarding World is at war, but that promise of safety has always been linked to Dumbledore. And it is not just his death, but also the circumstances. That it was possible for Death Eaters to get in the school, that one of the teachers is seemingly one of them and then killed the headmaster, at school. The school has become a place of terror, it is no longer a home.


  * _“And he knew, without knowing how he knew it, that the phoenix had gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the school, had left the world … had left Harry.”_ – Book 7 is so different in so many ways, because the death of Dumbledore really means the end of an era in every way. Hogwarts is no longer the place Harry can call home. He will never return, at least not as a student, because to him there can be no Hogwarts without Dumbledore. Dumbledore has always been the one to look up to, the one to ask for help, the one with all the answers. After Sirius Dumbledore was the last parental figure Harry had. With his death, with leaving Hogwarts, the last parts of Harry’s childhood are over. Symbolically he becomes of age at the start of book 7; he is legally and emotionally an adult now. No one to protect him, to guide him. He is his own man now.




	30. Chapter 30: The White Tomb

**_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_   
**

**Chapter 30: The White Tomb**

  * _“The moment the door had closed behind her, Hermione leaned forwards towards Harry with a most Hermione-ish look on her face.”_ – At this point we know Hermione so well that we can all exactly picture what Harry means by a Hermione-ish look.


  * _“This mantra seemed to pulse through Harry’s mind as he fell asleep at night, and his dreams were thick with cups, lockets and mysterious objects that he could not quite reach, though Dumbledore helpfully offered Harry a rope ladder that turned to snakes the moment he began to climb …”_ – Wait, isn’t this how ‘Snake & Ladders’ works?


  * _“‘Yeah, that fits,’ said Harry. ‘He’d play up the pure-blood side so he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them … he’s just like Voldemort. Pure-blood mother, Muggle father … ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name – Lord Voldemort – the Half-Blood Prince – how could Dumbledore have missed –?’”_ – Maybe Dumbledore just wasn’t that much into Literary Criticism and missed this obvious parallel? And obviously Harry does not see the parallels between him and Snape: Harry is a half-blood himself and just as Snape grew up in an abusive household. What makes them different are the choices they made and I think Harry is someone who defines himself and others as well based on their actions, not their heritage. It does not matter where someone comes from, but what they do; their actions show who they really are.


  * _“‘I should’ve shown the book to Dumbledore,’ said Harry. ‘All that time he was showing me how Voldemort was evil even when he was at school, and I had proof Snape was, too –’ ‘“Evil” is a strong word,’ said Hermione quietly.”_ – I think there is a difference between someone who is truly evil and someone who does evil things. It might look the same, but characters like Snape, like Draco, are more complex, are redeemable, unlike Voldemort. The memories Dumbledore had of Voldemort as a child and teenager show that he had always been like that, that he was a lost cause from the beginning. It makes him less human, almost abstract, like a monster who has no other choice than to do evil things. Snape is different; he had a choice and in some ways this makes his actions worse.


  * _“Downstairs he found the mood in the Great Hall subdued. Everybody was wearing their dress robes and no one seemed very hungry.”_ – I thought Dress Robes means they are very elegant, not in particular black or suitable for a funeral. But perhaps there are different traditions in the Wizarding World, maybe you just wear your best robes, despite the colour.


  * _“Harry had not spared Malfoy much thought. His animosity was all for Snape, but he had not forgotten the fear in Malfoy’s voice on that Tower top, nor the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters arrived. Harry did not believe that Malfoy would have killed Dumbledore. He despised Malfoy still for his infatuation with the Dark Arts, but now the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike. Where, Harry wondered, was Malfoy now, and what was Voldemort making him do under threat of killing him and his parents?”_ – I think this is the first time Harry sees a Death Eater and in particular Draco as a victim. He does not justify what Draco did, he still let Death Eaters into Hogwarts. But he understands the reasons why, the pressure Draco is under, how frighten he is and that he made a choice in not killing Dumbledore, even though he had the chance. He is not a good person, but he is not evil either.


  * _“[…] some people whom Harry merely knew by sight, such as the barman of the Hog’s Head […].”_ – I wonder how many people actually know that this is Dumbledore’s brother. Clearly none of the students.


  * _“The crowd continued to swell; with a great rush of affection for both of them, Harry saw Neville being helped into a seat by Luna. They alone of all the DA had responded to Hermione’s summons the night that Dumbledore had died, and Harry knew why: they were the ones who had missed the DA most … probably the ones who had checked their coins regularly in the hope that there would be another meeting …”_ – I just love the development of these two and their relationship with Harry. In year 5 Harry had first been a bit ashamed to be associated with them and later on they had accompanied him without question into the Ministry to save Sirius. We started this year with Harry appreciating them, calling them his friends, and again they are the only ones apart from Hermione, Ron and Ginny who came to help Harry. Twice they risked their lives for him. They might not be as close to him as the other three but I think he deeply cares about Neville and Luna just the same.


  * _“A little tufty-haired man in plain black robes had got to his feet and stood now in front of Dumbledore’s body. Harry could not hear what he was saying. Odd words floated back to them over the hundreds of heads. ‘Nobility of spirit’ … ‘intellectual contribution’ … ‘greatness of heart’ … it did not mean very much. It had little to do with Dumbledore as Harry had known him. He suddenly remembered Dumbledore’s idea of a few words: ‘nitwit’, ‘oddment’, ‘blubber’ and ‘tweak’, and again, had to suppress a grin … what was the matter with him?”_ – I’ve attended quite a few funerals in my life and those speeches hardly ever have anything to do with the person who just died. They merely summarize someone’s life, listing facts (what was their job, when did they marry etc), always at a distance, and it hardly ever feels like the truth. Life is more than that and words can hardly ever capture that.


  * _“Harry wondered where Dumbledore had learned Mermish. There was so much he had never asked him, so much he should have said …”_ – It is funny that we only really get to know Dumbledore after his death, that is then when he becomes more human. Harry only got to see a very small, very controlled glimpse of Dumbledore. The persona Dumbledore had created, not the actual person. And I think that in the role Dumbledore had played in Harry’s life, as a mentor and protector, it was necessary to remain that way. Harry needed to believe in Dumbledore and for that Dumbledore needed to remain almost abstract.


  * _“And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon for ever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one: that the shelter of a parent’s arms meant that nothing could hurt him. There was no waking from his nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died and he was more alone than he had ever been before.”_ – As I wrote before this marks the final loss of childhood and innocence. Harry sees the parental figures in his life as people who died for him, who gave their life in order to protect him. As long as Dumbledore was there he could give in into the illusion of safety, though even then part of him knew that Dumbledore could not always protect him, that terrible things had happened still. Harry always had to carry a greater burden than most people his age and his need for a parent was always someone to lift that burden for him, to help him, support him, protect him. He does not want to share this burden with his friends however; he feels like he is all alone in this, not wanting to risk yet another loved one to die for him. He is of course wrong in this. Both Ron and Hermione are old enough to decide for themselves and they have always been stronger united.


  * _“‘I never really gave up on you,’ she said. ‘Not really. I always hoped … Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more – myself.’”_ – I always liked that about their relationship, how they both were able to see the other for who they really are. Harry never noticed Ginny until she started to behave like herself around him. Ginny is the one who, apart from Ron and Hermione, knows Harry the best. At first she is intimidated by his fame and reputation, but she gets to know him better and is not afraid to call him out when he acts stupid. Harry can be sure she likes him for who he is, the real Harry, not the famous name. And what else is love than truly knowing each other?


  * _“‘But you’ve been too busy saving the wizarding world,’ said Ginny, half laughing. ‘Well … I can’t say I’m surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.’”_ – You know it must be incredibly hard to be in love with someone who is always at the risk of dying, who is willing to give his life to save others. Throughout the entire next year Ginny and Harry have no way to communicate with each other, she has no idea what he is doing, just knows that he is in anger, always anxious. Everyone she loves is constantly in danger, there is no escaping.


  * _“‘He will only be gone from the school when none here are loyal to him,’ said Harry, smiling in spite of himself. ‘My dear boy … even Dumbledore cannot return from the –’ ‘I am not saying he can. You wouldn’t understand. But I’ve got nothing to tell you.’”_ – Of course there are some magical ways how someone can return somehow from the dead – portraits, ghosts, etc – but this is not what Harry means. He is still loyal to Dumbledore, still acts on his orders, despite his death, despite everything he will learn about him after his death. Dumbledore’s man, through and through. And as long as Dumbledore’s memory is kept alive he is not truly gone.


  * _“‘You said to us once before,’ said Hermione quietly, ‘that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We’ve had time, haven’t we?’”_ – Forever one of my favourite quotes and such a nice callback to the first book. Both Ron and Hermione proved that they are with Harry, for better or worse. It seems impossible that they wouldn’t be with him on this journey. And it is what Harry had always set apart from Voldemort: that he is surrounded by people who love him, who would die for him, just as he would die for them.




End file.
